Pundit explains why Joao Pedro will score “a lot of goals” at Chelsea compared to Brighton | OneFootball

Pat Nevin has been speaking about Chelsea’s Club World Cup exploits, and we’ve already mentioned his thoughts on the final.

In previewing the game, he also addressed the question of who would play up top.

Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap’s suspensions in the last two games have opened the door for new man Joao Pedro, and he absolutely seized it. Nevin is convinced he’s the real deal.

Nevin on explosive start for Joao Pedro

Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto after the former’s superb goal.

“Is Joao Pedro the missing piece of the jigsaw? He’s one of them,” Nevin said in quotes for FIFA‘s Club World Cup website.

But he actually had some sympathy for Nicolas Jackson, who had two years as our clear first choice striker without any competition, and then in the space of a couple of weeks has been dumped down to third choice:

“I think it would be really tough on Nicolas Jackson. He has immediately gone from number one to number three (behind Joao Pedro and Liam Delap, another new recruit) and that’s hard because you don’t need three, you need two centre forwards. But Joao Pedro is an upgrade, I don’t think there is much doubt about that.

Joao Pedro should see jump in goal tally after move

A lot was made of Liam Delap adapting from Ipswich’s low possession, deep block to a totally different game at Chelsea, but the same will be true for Joao Pedro, hopefully in a positive way for him:

“If you look at the percentages of the chances that he’ll get at Chelsea compared with Brighton he’s going to score a lot of goals,” the Scot asserted.

He didn’t have a bad goal tally on the South Coast, but he was scoring a lot of penalties. If he can finish like has been doing in the USA, he’ll score a hatful.