Enzo Maresca ‘s Chelsea will be facing Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League this Saturday. The Blues have been in top form recently. They are unbeaten in the league since the disappointing defeat against City in match day 1. Currently Chelsea are standing at the 5th position in the table. With 3 wins, 1 draw and a loss. Maresca’s men will definitely want to continue this streak as long as possible.
However, since the Carabao cup clash against Barrow, Maresca will be facing some selection headaches ahead of the Brighton game. Because a hat-trick from Christopher Nkunku helped his team to get a comfortable 5-0 victory over the Bluebirds on last Tuesday.
Nkunku and Jackson to fight for Chelsea ‘s number 9 role?
Nicolas Jackson’s performance so far in the season have impressed Chelsea management the most. He has been the first choice striker for Maresca in the Premier League so far. The 23-year-old have started all of the 5 league games for the Blues scoring 4 goals and 2 assists. Jackson was even awarded the POTM award for scoring a brace in the London derby against West Ham.
However, when Jackson was rested in the EFL cup, Nkunku played as a number 9 in his absence. Nkunku failed live up to his expectation last season as he was out most of the time with a long-term knee and hamstring injury. But the Frenchman has been on top form again under Maresca since leaving RB Leipzig in 2023 for Chelsea. After the hat-trick against Barrow, he took his tally to 5 goals in 4 starts across all competitions this season. It includes a late winner coming off the bench against Bournemouth away from home in match day 4.
So, it would be a difficult decision for Maresca to choose one of them as them as their number 9 in the upcoming matches. Despite Nkunku’s prolific form so far in the season, he is yet to get into the starting xi permanently, in the league fixtures. His only start in the league campaign came in the opening day’s defeat to City as a left winger. However, the deadline day signing Jadon Sancho, who has been impressive so far have stolen the spot from others.
Maresca’s stance on the topic
Maresca is glad that the players are making it hard for him to decide. As he believes all of them want to compete in the highest level. When asked about the selection headache in the post-match press conference, the Italian said,
“The most important thing for me is that they make my choice difficult. That means they are all doing well and this is the key point and we need to continue doing that. This is a nice problem, when you have two strikers that can continue to score. You can decide which one and they are in a good moment, so we can use them.”
As per the reports of The Standard, we can see Jackson and Nkunku together as striking partners in the upcoming games. But it will require a tactical change. Maresca often uses the 4-2-3-1 formation with two wingers and a attacking midfielder. But if Maresca decides to use both Jackson and Nkunku as a center-forward, he will need to switch to a 4-4-2 formation. When the reporters asked Maresca about the idea of playing them together, Maresca said,
“I would like to put all of them because I really like football and I really like to keep the ball but the problem is when you lose the ball and then you have to defend. Not all of them can defend at the same level.”
To play Jackson and Nkunku together Maresca will need to sacrifice either Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo, which can be a suicide trap. So, it will be very hard to see both of the forwards together as striking partner. It would be interesting to see, whom Maresca decides to play against the Seagulls this weekend.
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