Pat Nevin says Chelsea’s season could hinge on one player’s form and fitness | OneFootball

Chelsea’s collapse post-Christmas looked like it might be about to cost them Champions League football in pretty spectacular fashion.

From one game off the top of the all the way down to 7th just a couple of weeks ago, they needed a miracle to make it. They still do, really, but they’ve at least ticked off 2 of the 6 wins they need with narrow victories against Everton and Fulham.

As former Blues winger Pat Nevin wrote this week, they have kept hope alive, and the form of one player might just be the key to sneaking into Europe’s top competition through the back door:

“Chelsea may well just have timed it right after it looked like another season without Champions League football was going to fall through their grasp. The return of Nicolas Jackson to fitness in the nick of time might just see them over the line after his winner against Everton,” Nevin wrote in the BBC’s Football Extra newsletter.

Chelsea’s season hinges of Jackson’s confidence more than anything else

Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson in a montage. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

It mirrors what we wrote about yesterday, where the London is Blue podcast claimed that having Jackson scoring was the biggest possible boost to Chelsea at this point.

His goal on Saturday was worth 3 points, but could end up actually being worth a lot more if it gets him scoring again. It was actually visible how much the goal drought was weighing him down, and we hope he goes back to being a lot looser now. He’s such a confidence player and such a streaky scorer – well, this would be the perfect time for a run of goals.

Of course, having Cole Palmer back in form would be brilliant too, but it feels we’ve got more options in his role. There’s nobody who can lead the line like Jackson, and he’s such a confidence player that a goal for him feels like it counts for more.