It was another successful night in Europe for Enzo Maresca’s men as Chelsea ran out comfortable winners against Greek giants Panathinaikos. The 4-1 victory saw the Premier League side make it two wins from two in the Europa Conference League opening phase, with four more games still to play.
The likes of Mykhailo Mudryk will have taken some confidence from the result, with the Ukrainian bagging a much-needed goal, while Joao Felix also managed to grab his first two efforts since marking his return to the club with a strike against Wolves. While the midweek fixtures give Maresca a chance to rest some of his key players—hence why Cole Palmer wasn’t included in the eligible squad list—it also provides others with the opportunity to impress their manager and try to force their way into the team for more meaningful games.
One man doing his utmost to make the most of that chance is Christopher Nkunku. The French forward has struggled with injuries since his move from RB Leipzig, which has prevented him from fully hitting his stride. However, his form in front of goal so far this term may start giving his boss something to think about in the upcoming games.
Nkunku Continues Impressive Goalscoring Form
The Frenchman scored twice on Thursday night
Nkunku acted as one of Maresca’s designated strikers in a unique 4-2-2-2 formation that saw him line up alongside Felix. While his display wasn’t the most mesmeric, he was reliable as ever from the spot to extend Chelsea’s advantage in the game as they ended up cruising to victory.
The Frenchman’s penalty was incredibly his eighth goal of the season, making him the club’s top scorer so far this term. Admittedly, only one of these has come in the Premier League – a late winner against Bournemouth – but that is primarily down to the fact that the man earning £195,000-per-week has barely been afforded an opportunity in league games.
In his eight Premier League appearances, Nkunku has managed just 140 minutes, the majority of which came during the opening day defeat to Manchester City, where he was hauled off inside an hour. One game against one of the toughest teams in the land is hardly the one that a player coming back from injury should be judged upon though, and his form since then has been far more promising for the 26-year-old.
It has been said that the former Leipzig star has been building a positive relationship both on and off the pitch with Jadon Sancho ever since the winger arrived at Stamford Bridge over the summer. A potential link-up between the two could offer a mouth-watering prospect for Chelsea fans.
It is clear that Maresca knows exactly what level of player he has in his ranks too, as his comments following the forward’s winning goal against Bournemouth earlier this season show.
“The reason I used Christo in that moment was I thought we were creating chances but we lacked quality inside the box,” the Italian told Chelsea’s website. “So the idea to use him as a nine was because any ball inside the box we know he’s a quality player and could decide the game.
“But I’m happy with all of them. Christo was very good, he scored and he fought without the ball.”
Nkunku’s Best Position
The Frenchman can play a number of different positions
The main conundrum that Enzo Maresca will now have on his hands is where to slot his in-form attacker. Based on his goal record, it would be easy to assume that the best position for the French international is leading the line up top. However, Nkunku is not the out-and-out striker that the Blues have been crying out for, despite his efficiency this season. There’s also the issue that if he decided to go down that route, it would mean dropping Nicolas Jackson, who has overcome his critics to produce his best performance since making the switch to England last term.
Throughout his career, the 26-year-old has featured more prominently as either a central midfielder or a number 10. The issue is, there is no room for him in either of those areas in the current system. The double pivot that Maresca uses requires more defensive players like Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, and there is no chance of Cole Palmer being unseated further up the pitch.
An alternative could be to shift Palmer over to the right-hand side, where he was effective last season, or to play Nkunku himself on either flank. This would see him competing with the likes of Sancho, Noni Madueke, and Pedro Neto.
With so much quality, though, there’s no guarantee that the Frenchman starts, and he could grow dissatisfied at Stamford Bridge if his playing time doesn’t change. Although Maresca has labelled Nkunku’s form and absence from Premier League XIs as a “nice problem” to have, it could quickly become a difficult one to solve should nothing change.
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt – accurate as of 24/10/2024