Nicolas Jackson’s first 50 games at Chelsea compared to Didier Drogba

“You can’t compare (Nicolas) Jackson now with Didier Drogba,” warned Mauricio Pochettino during the new striker’s first season at Chelsea.

While the departing Argentine coach would be right to avoid judging Jackson by Drogba’s high standards. Chelsea career, both characters enjoyed and endured similar beginnings in life in West London. Both arrived as exciting centre-forwards tasked with immediately taking their continental scoring exploits to the Premier League.

Jackson is at an earlier stage in his career compared to the young Drogba, who joined the Blues more in his prime as one of the world’s most expensive strikers in 2004. But the 23-year-old Senegal international he certainly made his mark on the Blues during a busy debut campaign.

Here’s how the two strikers have fared in their first 50 games for Chelsea.

Both Jackson and Drogba struggled in front of goal immediately after landing in London. Chelsea’s modern striker won his first Premier League penalty for accumulating yellow cards before scoring his second goal of the competition.

Drogba scored just once in his first five appearances for the Blues before bagging a brace Champions League debut at the club. The 2004 recruit was at his best in Europe during the early stages of his English football career, which is unsurprising given his experience on the continent with a Marseille side that reached the Cup final of UEFA shortly before Drogba was sold.

The Ivory Coast international reflected on the criticism – at home and from the opposing fans – that came to him at Chelsea. “As soon as I miss a chance it’s: ‘Why has so much money been spent on him?'” Drogba told the BBC in January 2005, six months after his arrival. “There’s even a song about it. But I like that. It motivates me.”

Jackson’s finish also left a lot to be desired. The unrefined striker, who spent no time in any recognized football academy, can be incredibly erratic in front of goal. Only two Premier League players missed more to choose defined as “big chances” during his debut campaign, while his tally of 14 top-flight goals was significantly lower than the xG figure of 18.6.

Drogba’s Chelsea career was 15 minutes old when he provided his first assist in a blue shirt. Oceans of space ahead Manchester UnitedThe team’s scintillating rearguard, the tall forward headed in Eidur Gudjohnsen’s stride for the only goal of the game. That victory served as a marker for Jose Mourinho’s new title challengers and provided the first hint of Drogba’s aerial artistry.

The physically imposing striker was as adept with the front as most players with his feet. Frank Lampard became one of the main beneficiaries of Drogba’s peerless attacking play, bursting from midfield towards the series of demolitions.

After the duo combined during a famous Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich in 2005 – which a suspended Mourinho watched from a laundry basket – Drogba said. Uefa: “(Lampard) knows that when I jump, I’m always trying to find someone off my head. He’s smart, and this isn’t the first time he’s scored those kinds of goals. He knows my game.” The pair would go on to become one of the most prolific goal-scoring duos in Premier League history, with 36 top-flight goals.

Jackson has found his version of Lampard in the form of Cole Palmer. Almost a third of the striker’s goals have been created by the Chelsea talisman, while all but three of Jackson’s assists have fallen at Palmer’s feet. If the current duo continue to combine at the same frightening rate, they are well on their way to surpassing the tally amassed by Drogba and Lampard.

While Jackson is yet to lift his first piece of silverware for Chelsea, Drogba had already lifted three trophies after his first 50 games for the Blues. The Ivorian certainly benefited from arriving in London in the early stages of Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich era, joining a side funded by unparalleled wealth and led by one of the best managers of all time.

However, Drogba established his lofty reputation as the ultimate ‘big game player’ six months into his Chelsea career. After Mourinho had been banished to the stands for taunting Liverpool fans as the 2005 League Cup final went into extra time, the manager’s summer arrival managed to go round the long haul from Glen Johnson over the line to put the Blues up 2-1 in a set they would make. eventually wins 3-2.

Overcome by the excitement of the occasion, Drogba celebrated by pulling off the number 15 shirt, the same set of digits Jackson would inherit two decades later.

“It was a bit difficult at first,” Drogba explained at the end of his debut season at Chelsea, he was quoted as saying. Sky Sports“because when I first got to London, I was very, very tired.” The forward claimed injuries and fatigue limited him to “60%” of his potential early on, before growing into the role.

Jackson couldn’t blame any fitness issues, but followed the same learning curve as Drogba. The pair even registered exactly the same number of goals (21) in their first 50 games in blue.

Chelsea’s current number 15 insisted at the start of the 2024/25 campaign that he is “still in the learning process”. The future looks increasingly bright for the hungry young striker who has enjoyed a prolific start to the new season, but Drogba’s Chelsea career proves that no development is a straight line. The club icon scored just 22 goals in his next 50 games for Chelsea.

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