Confident Nicholas Jackson fires home to help Chelsea as Cole Palmer blows cold | OneFootball

As one ends their goal drought, another shows little sign of following suit

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Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Malik Ouzia

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It was with surprising bluntness that Enzo Maresca admitted last week that Chelsea can only qualify for the Champions League if Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer stop firing blanks. Here, half of that bargain was enough to keep their hopes on track.

It was not pretty, not for the first time since Christmas, the Blues left nervously awaiting the final whistle against a team they should really have put away. Maresca’s side never kicked on after taking a 27th-minute lead as the Italian watched on from the press box while serving a one-match touchline ban.

At this stage of the season, though, 1-0 wins are as good as any. With the fixtures the Blues have left - Liverpool and Manchester United to come here, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest away - nothing less would have done.

Perhaps because of the attention on Palmer, it had gone a little under the radar that Chelsea’s No9 had been 13 games and more than four months without a goal.

Nicolas Jackson

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

That period included, in fairness, a two-month absence with a hamstring injury, but either side of that spell, Jackson had regressed away from the maturing centre-forward of the early part of the season and back towards the volatile, wasteful iteration of his debut campaign. His hold-up play here, however, was back at its most useful and that he returned to the scoresheet on his sharpest performance since that injury break was no coincidence either.

The good news for Chelsea is that Jackson can be a streaky player; he began this season with 12 goal involvements in 15 league games, and finished the last with seven in eight. He might have shown as much immediately, but pulled out of a challenge with Jordan Pickford when well-placed to score, then saw a late clincher ruled out for offside.

His goal here, mind you, was not that of a player lacking confidence. Every bit of the move was played on instinct, Trevor Chalobah nipping in to win the ball ahead of Beto, Enzo Fernandez fizzing a quick pass into Jackson with Everton’s centre-halves yet to get out and the striker himself swivelling to spear past Pickford, who had not quite set his feet.

This was Chelsea in lethal transition, a common sight early in the season but an increasingly rare one as the controlling ethos of Maresca-ball has set in. It was unscripted in another way, too; referee Chris Kavanagh ought to have awarded the home side a corner seconds earlier, but instead pointed for a goal-kick, from which Everton ceded possession and the opening goal.

Cole Palmer looks out of sorts

AFP via Getty Images

Even before that breakthrough, it had been a more vibrant attacking display from the hosts, made so largely by Noni Madueke.

His shift to the left wing was less about unlocking some fresh dimension and more about accommodating Pedro Neto’s return to the right, the Portuguese finally earning a crack in his preferred position after scoring a stunning late winner at Fulham last weekend.

Madueke, though, was the more impressive of the pair, denied by Pickford early on after shifting inside and initially looking hesitant to let fly on his weaker foot. In the second half, Nathan Patterson was tormented and eventually hooked for the veteran Ashley Young, but he fared no better and was rescued only by an even better Pickford save. Mind perhaps focused by the unfamiliarity of his brief, Madueke was diligent defensively, too.

Chelsea are in tunnel-vision mode themselves, their complex season boiling down to a month-long run from here of what they hope will be seven games and chances for success on two fronts.

If Jackson can get hot now, after so long in the cold, it could make all the difference.