It doesn’t rain at Chelsea, but it pours and it has been pouring for months and months now.
On Tuesday night, days after losing the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City at Wembley, Chelsea were smoked 5-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates.
Even though the struggling London club went into the break only 1-0 down, as soon as that goal went in at the start of the second half, the team capitulated and Arsenal then put on a show.
You just wonder what this does for Mauricio Pochettino’s future going forward because he is taking too many hits here.
Let’s be honest, it could have and probably should have been a lot worse for Chelsea against their London rivals.
Nicolas Jackson is having a horror time out on the pitch and is proving that the striker role just isn’t his game. He needs to be taken out of the XI!
Just like the weekend, he is getting pelters for his performances in Chelsea colours, but he can also consider himself a lucky boy.
That’s what Ian Wright thinks anyway after the 22-year-old’s possible red card-worthy challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu in the first half.
The Highbury hero labelled Jackson’s tackle, which caught the Arsenal defender late and on top of the ankle, as ‘unbelievable’, as he told Premier League Productions (23/04/24 at 8:55 pm).
Wright was left surprised that VAR only saw it as a yellow card-worthy tackle as he wasn’t happy with Jackson’s actions.
Should Nicolas Jackson have been sent off against Arsenal?
“Unbelievable,” responded Wright to Jackson’s tackle. “As soon as you see it, and people will say ‘oh, when you see it in slow motion’. It doesn’t make any difference/
“You know there is a problem. The ball has gone, and then you look bang (steps over his ankle). That is probably a red, for me. He is over the ball. It’s dangering the opponent.
“I can’t understand why that hasn’t been given. Is it because he didn’t give him a yellow, so he can’t look back on it?! Wow (on VAR’s interpretation being that it was a yellow). Look at that, is that not dangerous play?!”
Nicolas Jackson’s struggles for Chelsea
The issue with Jackson is that he is inexperienced, raw and needs a lot of time to develop into a centre-forward.
But the club have paid £32 million for his talents and fans want to see more from him when he simply isn’t ready yet.
Yes, he isn’t performing well. But this is a case of Jackson needing reliability around him.
Look at Darwin Nunez at Liverpool, he is allowed to be hit and miss because you can rely on Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota to hit big numbers.
If Jackson had that around him, there would be less pressure, less noise, a smaller spotlight and he would then be able to develop quicker.
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