If the old fable already warns against a bet on the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, then even the smartest of the silly money probably would not have fancied Nicolas Jackson when clean through one-on-one.
Against Crystal Palace just before the international break, the striker missed two glaring chances late on to cost his side two points. Last week at Bournemouth, it took his replacement, Christopher Nkunku, to come off the bench and earn Chelsea three.
Here at the London Stadium, though, Jackson suddenly found clinical form, scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes as Enzo Maresca’s side blew West Ham away. For good measure, he laid on another for Cole Palmer after the break, a 3-0 win echoing Maresca’s record on the road at the start of the new Premier League campaign.
Jackson’s goals here were a classic case of the confidence stolen from one funding the other. He took his time over the first, cruising in off the left flank and waiting for a challenge that never came, left with a delicate steer through the legs of Alphonse Areola on the angle as the only feasible route to goal.
Having taken it, when put in again by Moises Caicedo soon after, there was no flicker of hesitation, simply one touch out of the feet and an assured clip off the outside of the boot and in.
West Ham were comically obliging hosts, as has become a trend. Defeat here means Julen Lopetegui is yet to pick up a point after three home games in charge, with May’s victory over an about-to-be-relegated Luton Town the Hammers’s only win here since February.
Already, pressure is building on the new boss, whose decision to replace the lively Crysencio Summerville with Michail Antonio early in the second-half was met with fierce boos. Summerville, handed a first Hammers start, had given Chelsea’s latest stand-in right-back Wesley Fofana an awkward afternoon and should have had a first-half penalty as his reward.
So open were West Ham though, and so ruthless were Jackson and Chelsea, that that decision would have made no difference to the result.
It has been difficult not to take Maresca’s appraisals of Jackson in recent weeks with a pinch of salt, given how publicly the club sought to upgrade with their summer pursuit of Victor Osimhen.
Actions, though, have backed up the new manager’s words, with Jackson’s contract extended earlier this month and here Maresca resisting calls to start Nkunku, who scored in both legs of last month’s Conference League qualifier, as well as at Bournemouth.
Jackson, much maligned, now has 21 goals in 50 Chelsea appearances and while those are not exactly Erling Haaland numbers, nor are they those of a pantomime mule.
The irony for all the obsession over Chelsea’s failed summer centre-forward search is that there is so much attacking talent elsewhere that if others can contribute consistently - as only Palmer did last term - the collective ought not to starve. Arsenal, for instance, have not had even a 15-goal centre-forward since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and have pushed Haaland and Manchester City for the title twice on the spin.
Full debutant Jadon Sancho is doing his bit for the numbers already, his pass for the opening goal here making it two assists in as many games. Sure, neither of them have exactly been ‘go on, hit me’ deliveries, invitations that could not be refused. But then nor were every single one of the mountain racked up in his Borussia Dortmund pomp, and if Sancho is to get back to that level, it will not happen overnight.
The early signs are promising, for Sancho, for Maresca, for Jackson, and for Chelsea at large.
