Chelsea's Champions League ambitions are still in their own hands.
On Friday night, in a game that lacked quality for long periods, the Blues battled to a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, with Marc Cucurella the night's only scorer, heading home a Reece James cross at the back post.
This goal prevented Enzo Maresca's team from slipping out of the top five, and victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on the final day will secure Champions League qualification, although anything less would almost certainly see them miss out.
With the Conference League final in Wrocław to come, followed by the Club World Cup stateside, it's set to be a busy summer on the pitch for the Blues, while, off it, you can better your bottom dollar that they'll be active in the transfer market, with a new striker top of their list of priorities.
The latest on Nicolas Jackson's future
One man not involved in the victory over Man United was Nicolas Jackson, commencing his three-match suspension, having been sent off, following video review, for colliding with Sven Botman's face last Sunday.
The Senegalese striker will also be banned for next weekend's trip to Nottingham, as well as the opening day of next season in August, but where will he find himself in the pecking order by then?
Well, Maresca certainly views Jackson as an important figure, praising his out-of-possession work rate, and he has certainly been a key figure this season, scoring 12 goals in 33 appearances across all competitions, with nine of his ten in the Premier League coming before Christmas, which Ed Dove of ESPN described as the 'finest goal-scoring run of his Chelsea career'.
Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson reacts after sustaining an injury
So let's assess Jackson's Premier League statistics this season, and how they compare to the rest of the division.
Nicolas Jackson 2024/25 Premier League statistics
Statistics
Minutes
Goals
Goals per 90
Shots
Shots on target
Shots on target%
Goals per shot
Goals - xG
Big chances missed
Statistics courtesy of FBref.com and SofaScore
The table underlines that Jackson is certainly not a clinical finisher, with only 13 players, out of 569, registering a lower goals - xG figure in the Premier League this season, while only three players have missed more Opta-defined big chances.
nicolas-jackson-chelsea-premier-league
In summary, Jackson takes a lot of shots but not a lot of them are goals, so, if Chelsea are going to be competing to win the biggest trophies again, they probably need a better centre-forward, so could one be available?
Chelsea could land Nicolas Jackson upgrade
According to a recent report by Jörg Weiler and Yannick Hüber of Bild, Chelsea have been given the opportunity to sign Borussia Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy, claiming that he has a €70m (around £59m) release clause in his contract.
They added that Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, and Real Madrid are also interested, even if die Schwarzgelben's sporting director Lars Ricken is insistent the striker will not move this summer.
guirassy-dortmund
So why are so many of Europe's top clubs interested in Guirassy's services?
Well, after scoring 30 goals for Stuttgart last season, he joined Dortmund for a reported fee of £14.7m in the summer, netting 33 times across all competitions during this campaign, including 13 in the Champions League, making him the joint-top scorer in the tournament, alongside Raphinha.
His Bundesliga statistics across the last two seasons are pretty impressive too.
Bundesliga's highest scorers: 23/24 & 24/25 combined
Players
Harry Kane
Serhou Guirassy
Loïs Openda
Ermedin Demirović
Tim Kleindienst
Benjamin Šeško
Omar Marmoush*
*joined Manchester City in January 2025.
All statistics courtesy of FBref.com
As the table shows, only Harry Kane has scored more Bundesliga goals than Guirassy this season and last, the Guinean doing so in a largely dysfunctional Dortmund team this season, making his exploits all the more impressive.
As a result, Andrews Sefa of 3Sports labels him "clinical", while Abdullah Mamaniyat of Breaking the Lines praises his 'great movement' and his 'ability to create goals out of nothing'.
So, the big question remains: how does he compare to Jackson?
Well, let's find out.
Nicolas Jackson vs Serhou Guirassy 23/24 & 24/25 comparison
Statistics
Appearances
Minutes
Goals
Assists
Goals - xG
Shots
Shots on target %
Shot-creating actions
Goal-creating actions
Touches per 90
Statistics courtesy of Transfermarktand FBref.com
As the table outlines, Guirassy comes out on top for almost every single metric included, with his goals - xG figure of +6 in stark contrast to the -6 posted by Jackson, which speaks to the gulf in quality between the two centre-forwards.
nicolas-jackson-chelsea
Ryan Benson of Opta's the Analyst labels Guirassy 'the complete striker', an assertion all available statistics support, so it is clear that he would be a massive upgrade on Jackson, and his potential arrival, for just £59m, could take Chelsea to the next level with his clinical finishing in front of goal.
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