The Nicolas Jackson, Didier Drogba comparison is old hat but that goal was about as Drogba as it gets. Oh, and it turns out Enzo Fernandez is The Next Cesc Fabregas. Enzo Maresca is a coach who coaches.
The Drogba comparison wasmore about the mercurial nature of their starts to life at Chelsea than anything else last season, with fans at pains to point out whenever Jackson fluffed a gilt-edged chance that one of the club’s most legendary footballers produced far more groans than gasps when he first arrived at Chelsea and Look What He Went On To Do.
Drogba scored 16 goals in his debut season in a title-winning team, while Jackson got 17 in a side that finished sixth. Despite that favourable parallel to an all-time great, at a club where the answer has invariably been to buy solutions rather than mould them, up until very recently the inescapable narrative was that Chelsea would never do anything of significance without signing a £100m striker.
‘If Chelsea aren’t going to give Nicolas Jackson a season to show if he’s up to the task then what’s this ‘project’ all about?’ we asked a year ago. But we would be lying if we said we never wavered in our belief that Jackson could prove himself worthy of leading the line for Chelsea long-term.
Even with Chelsea’s improvement under Mauricio Pochettino in the second half of last season, like everyone else other than Cole Palmer, Jackson remained an erratic presence; often frustratingly unable to combine two or three aspects of good play to score a goal or create a chance. Under Maresca it feels now as though he can do little wrong, with the £32m Chelsea paid Villarreal for him looking more and more like a bargain by the game.
His goal was very Drogba, with a clinical finish following a delicate touch over a defender’s challenge having made the chance for himself by roughing up a centre-back. He later set up Noni Madueke at the back post with a wonderful cross that the England international should have scored from, having blocked a Leicester free-kick in the wall in his own box before powering down the wing to get on the end of a through ball.
He had another shot well saved that Cole Palmer would have scored from had Madueke not blocked his teammate’s shot on the line. And it was his parried header that he won having again outmuscled a Leicester defender in the box that fell to Enzo Fernandez to finish and secure victory.
Chelsea’s negative goals minus goals allowed score last season and the season before was met with little more than a shrug, as if nothing could be done. As Jackson and Chelsea in general are evidence of this season, it turns out finishing can be coached.
Enzo Maresca hasn’t just changed things for Jackson. Moises Caicedo was excellent again here; so too was Noni Madueke – hilarious block of Cole Palmer aside. Benoit Badiashile played as well as he’s ever done for Chelsea, frequently stepping out of defence to win the ball in front of Jamie Vardy. Joao Felix was effective having come into the team on the left.
But it was Enzo Fernandez who provided the clearest example of Maresca’s coaching in action other than Jackson.
Having been dropped in favour of Romeo Lavia in recent weeks, the World Cup winner showed – playing in a role that actually suits him – why in games where Chelsea are set to dominate the ball he can be a superior option to the Belgian.
He wasn’t alongside Caicedo in a double pivot, but just ahead of him, often mirroring Cole Palmer when Chelsea had the ball. That more advanced position saw him close enough to Jackson to set him up beautifully for his goal, and his four key passes in the game was more than anyone else on the pitch.
It was one of very few examples – perhaps the greatest of all – of Fernandez looking like a £100m midfielder in a Chelsea shirt, and in another game in a season where Jackson is showing he’s on the same path from inconsistency to excellence as one Blues legend, this was a glimpse of Fernandez’s potential to mimic another.
And while, like dubbing Jackson the new Drogba, suggesting Fernandez is a Cesc Fabregas regen is premature in the extreme, working under a coach who actually coaches makes that possible. Because while neither are at that level yet, Maresca could realistically get them there.
