🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: Who's bad? | OneFootball

An already interesting matchweek in the Premier League concluded with an absolute barn-burner in north London.

And our Player of the Week is …

Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea)

Chelsea’s 4-1 win away at Tottenham on Monday night was Spurs’ first defeat of the season, and the Blues’ first win over a Big Six side under their current ownership.

But that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story of one of the most bonkers matches in Premier League history.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened in the first half alone …

And it didn’t exactly calm down after half-time. Far from it.

Spurs were reduced to nine men when Destiny Udogie was given his marching orders in the second half. Then Chelsea went in front, Eric Dier had a brilliant equaliser disallowed for offside, before Chelsea added two further goals to seal the victory.

It was Nicolas Jackson who scored that second half hat-trick and took home his first Premier League matchball, yet the 22-year-old’s performance was also somehow one of the most bizarre aspects of the night.

Tottenham’s decision to continue deploying a high defensive line even with nine men was either naive or admirable depending on your perspective, and manager Ange Postecoglou has already built up enough credit in the bank for many to feel it was the latter.

Either way, Mauricio Pochettino’s side looked like they were making a pig’s ear of playing with a two-man advantage for the most part, with Jackson and Raheem Sterling routinely being caught offside by the high line after foolishly mis-timing their runs.

When they eventually did get it right, Sterling latched onto a through ball from the excellent Cole Palmer and squared to Jackson for an easy-peasy finish. What were you worried about?

Jackson’s second goal was almost identical (only this time, Conor Gallagher was the provider) before he showed good composure to dribble around goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and seal his hat-trick.

The Senegal international has now scored five goals in 10 Premier League appearances for Chelsea, building on his 12 goals for Villarreal in LaLiga next season.

He clearly knows where the net is, yet at times he looks like he’d struggle to find it with Google Maps, a compass and a giant neon sign saying “This way to the net!”.

In many ways he’s the symbol of this Chelsea team at the moment, with his performances veering from the sublime to the ridiculous from one moment to the next, leaving the onlooker never quite sure what they’re going to get.

And like many of his team-mates, he’s still young and still has lots of developing to do. He could be really special one day, or he could fade into obscurity. It’s really difficult to tell.

But like Chelsea as a whole at the moment, whether you rate Jackson or not, you can’t deny he’s entertaining.

Next up for the Blues is a meeting with champions Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. Whatever you’re doing on Sunday, make sure you don’t miss that one.