“All credits to him” – Ashely Cole heaped huge praise on £32m Chelsea player during draw vs Manchester City
Ashely Cole heaped huge praise on Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson for his display during this evening’s game against Manchester City.
Chelsea showed some real quality on Saturday by securing a 1-1 away draw at Man City in the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola’s side are unbeaten at the Etihad Stadium in all competitions this campaign, but they came close to losing that record due to an eye-catching away performance from Mauricio Pochettino’s visiting team.
The Blues went in front through Raheem Sterling’s first-half goal. The former Man City attacker came back to haunt his former club with his 42nd minute strike, which came after a superb assisted pass from Nicolas Jackson in the build up.
Chelsea were ultimately made to pay for missing several other chances in front of goal, with Rodri firing in an 83rd minute equaliser.
Cole, who was on co-commentary for Man City against Chelsea, did single out Jackson for individual praise on more than one occasion.
The £32 million Blues star (The Guardian) started as the central striker and was very busy during just over 80 minutes at the Etihad.
Ashely Cole said on Sky Sports’ Main Event channel (6:13pm): “The goalscorer is Raheem Sterling, but this is all about Nicolas Jackson. Fantastic here when two players come on to him, he does them with the one-two. He wants a better ball than he got from [Malo] Gusto and he delivers it.”
He later commented on Jackson (6:16pm): “I’ve been really impressed with Jackson at the top end of the pitch. It’s not easy, probably one of the hardest roles you can have in football, away at Manchester City as a lone striker. Four of five occasions his link-up play has been excellent.”
Nicolas Jackson against Manchester City
Aside from a big missed chance in the opening 45 minutes, Jackson really caught the eye in a positive way on Saturday.
We think the 22-year-old forward will be disappointed he wasted his big opportunity to score. He couldn’t quite get the ball out from under his feet and fired his shot right at goalkeeper Ederson.
It’s obvious that he brings so much to this XI with his all-round play, though.
Pochettino said last month that Chelsea missed Jackson when he was at the Africa Cup of Nations (The Evening Standard). We’ve got to agree with him on that assessment!