The Premier League is over, and WhoScored have ranked the best players signed last summer by their average rating on their platform. There are two Chelsea players in the mix.
Coming in at number 9 is Nicolas Jackson. The striker had his tough moments but showed his value over the length of the campaign, finishing strong with 4 goals and an assist in his final 5 matches to put a cherry on top.
There’s plenty of rawness to iron out, but considering the relatively low price of £30m we paid and his lack of experience, it really was a good debut campaign and Jackson looks set to be at the very least a solid player for us, with the potential to be a whole lot more if he keeps refining his game.
Number one by any metric
Number one on the list doesn’t require much introduction. Cole Palmer likely would have won this award in about 9 of the last 10 years.
The numbers are insane: 22 goals and 11 assists in the Premier League despite missing the first few games of the season.
Plus, in this case it’s more than just the raw totals. The point is not just that Palmer accumulated so many goal involvements, it’s that he did it in such a bad team.
That not only makes the feat more impressive, it also means he had a more significant impact on his team than all of these other players.
Take Erling Haaland last year. His goal numbers were quite insane. But if Julian Alvarez had played those minutes, Man City would still have done pretty well and Alvarez would have scored a lot of goals.
Are there are players who could have done what Palmer did for Chelsea this year in terms of an individual earning points for his team? We’re not so sure.