Tim Sherwood remarked that Nicolas Jackson’s performance during Chelsea’s win over Brentford on Sunday night resembled that of a player in ‘Soccer Aid.’
The Blues extended their lead in second place to 4 points after their 2-1 victory over Brentford, courtesy of goals from Marc Cucurella and Nicolas Jackson.
Despite scoring a goal that night, Senegalese forward Nicolas Jackson faced criticism for missing a close-range opportunity, sending the ball over the bar.
After the match, former Spurs manager and legend did not hold back in his criticism of the forward, comparing his performance on the pitch to that of ‘a rapper or an actor.’
Speaking on Premier League Productions, Sherwood stated: “Not just today, I think all season, well, since I’ve seen Nicolas Jackson, he’s so unpredictable.”
“At times he looks like someone playing in Soccer Aid who’s not a footballer. Look at this chance [Jackson’s miss from six yards], that looks like someone who is a rapper or an actor or something trying to play football.”
“But then all of a sudden he just turns it on. He’s such a threat because he tries to get in behind, he doesn’t mind if he misses chances because he knows his one will come.”
“But we’ll show you something now [for Jackson’s goal] which is undefendable, you can’t defend this.”
“As soon as the ball turns over, Caicedo does brilliantly, and Enzo gives him the ball, once he’s in this position, not everyone can do this [run through and score], he’s got a talent to do this.”
“It’s incredible. He scores he hardest chances and misses the easiest ones, but you need to be a big character to do that because he always wants to put himself on offer.”
“I’ve got a lot of time for him. He’s scored nine Premier League goal now, that’s a very difficult chance [against Brentford], he’s got so much to do, he drives and drives, keeps his balance well, smashes it in the bottom corner, fantastic, wins them the game.”
“But he always puts himself on offer all of the time and I admire that from him.”
Despite Sherwood’s remarks, Jackson has enjoyed an excellent season for the Blues so far, netting nine goals in the Premier League and contributing to their ascent to second place.
Although the win over Brentford moved Chelsea to within two points of leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand, Enzo Maresca insisted that his team is not focused on the title race.
According to The Mirror, Maresca commented: “No matter how many games we win, I think we are not ready to compete for the title.”
“One of the reasons why is that the team that knows how to compete to win titles, they won’t concede goals we concede. A team that knows how to win titles, that is not a goal they know how to concede.”
“Just two teams have conceded less than us. Defensively we’re not doing bad. We’d like to end with a clean sheet but there’s another team trying to score.”
As Maresca points out, Chelsea have conceded just 19 goals in the league this season, with only Arsenal (15) and Liverpool (13) allowing fewer.
