Chelsea are flying right now, sat second in the Premier League, just four points adrift of league-leaders Liverpool, having smashed fierce rivals Tottenham 4-3 on Sunday, despite actually being 2-0 down inside 11 minutes.
Enzo Maresca's side have now scored four or more on four separate occasions in the Premier League this season, making them the division's top-scorers, four clear of second-placed, West London rivals Brentford, who will visit Stamford Bridge at the rather unusual time of 7pm this forthcoming Sunday.
Across all competitions, the Blues have netted a whopping 61 goals in 23 matches, an average of 2.65 goals per game, with the 142 goals scored in the double-winning 2009/10 season still the most the club have racked up in a single campaign.
Given their ongoing involvement in the UEFA Conference League, and with a revamped, expanded FIFA Club World Cup to come next June and July, the Blues could play as many as 68 matches this season meaning, should they keep up their current scoring rate, they're on course to smash that previous record by bagging a staggering 180 goals.
That's been helped by one main, in particular...
Nicolas Jackson: taking his game to another level
Of course, Cole Palmer is getting plenty of the headlines, not least because he's now taken his tally to 50 goals and assists since the start of last season in the Premier League, one more than Mohamed Salah, who's second on the list.
However, the form of Nicolas Jackson should not be overlooked.
Cole-Palmer-Nicolas-Jackson-Chelsea
During his first season with the Blues, the Senegalese striker was widely mocked, largely due to his propensity to miss high-quality, high-profile chances. The statistics do somewhat back up this narrative.
Jackson's non-penalty goals minus non-penalty goals figure was -4.6, according to FBref, meaning he would have been expected to score almost five more goals than he actually did, based on the quality of chances he had; only two players had a lower figure last season, namely Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Brennan Johnson.
The Chelsea forward also missed seven big changes in the Premier League during his debut campaign, albeit 11 players did squander more.
A big chance is defined by any opportunity with an expected goals (xG) value greater than 0.38.
Having said that, Jackson did end the campaign having netted 17 goals in all competitions, with Ali Tweedale in Opta's the Analyst arguing that the striker "has actually been a success at Stamford Bridge".
nicolas-jackson-chelsea-spurs-premier-league
There are also signs that the Senegalese forward is getting even better, having been one of the best-performing players in the division so far this season.
Nicolas Jackson: 2024/25 Premier League statistics
Metric
Goals
Goals + Assists
Non-penalty goals
Non-penalty expected goals
Shots on target
Shots on target %
Goal-creating actions
All statistics courtesy of FBref.com
As made clear above, Jackson has been one of the outstanding attackers in the Premier League to date this season, but there is actually a former Chelsea centre-forward out there somewhere in the ether who has outscored him over the last year or so.
Michy Batshuayi's post-Chelsea career
Michy Batshuayi arrived at Chelsea from Olympique de Marseille for a reported fee of £33m in 2016, scoring a respectable 25 goals in 77 appearances for the club.
batshuayi-fenerbache-leeds-transfer-super-lig
During this period however, he was loaned out five times, spending time with Borussia Dortmund, Valencia, Crystal Palace twice and then Beşiktaş, before finally departing in 2022, sold to Fenerbahçe for a miserly €3m (around £2.4m).
Then, last summer, he controversially joined Galatasaray on a free transfer, becoming only the seventh player in history to represent all of İstanbul's big three and the first non-Turkish player to achieve this rare feat.
So far this season, Batshuayi has six goals to his name, on target in vain twice as Okan Buruk's team were dumped out of the Champions League play-offs by BSC Young Boys in August, also bagging four Süper Lig goals, with the defending champions six points clear at the top.
Thus, having also bagged 16 goals for Fenerbahçe in 2024, before departing across the Bosporus Strait for their fiercest rivals, the Belgian has 22 goals to his name this calendar year, five more than the current incumbent of Chelsea's number nine position Jackson.
Cole-Palmer-Noni-Madueke Related
[He'd make Palmer unplayable: Chelsea want to sign "world-class" £57m star](https://www.footballfancast.com/hed-make-palmer-unplayable-chelsea-want-move-for-matheus-cunha/ "He'd make Palmer unplayable: Chelsea want to sign "world-class" £57m star")
Chelsea could be about to make a move for one of the Premier League's biggest stars.