Nicolas Jackson [43]

The pressure to be Chelsea’s main striker has gobbled up some of the finest forwards over the past couple of decades. It’s long been associated with some kind of curse that very few are able to break, with the likes of Fernando Torres, Álvaro Morata, Alexandre Pato, Radamel Falcao, Gonzalo Higuaín, Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku all unable to display the magic they’d shown elsewhere in a Chelsea shirt. Between those seven alone, they scored just 61 goals in 272 Premier League appearances. That’s an average of just 0.22 goals a game.

The latest African Cup Of Nations gets underway in Ivory Coast this January, with plenty of Premier League clubs set to lose the services of some of their top stars for a month or so. Players like Mohamed Salah and André Onana could be set to miss up to seven games with their club sides if their nations are to go all the way to the final of the tournament. 

Ivan Toney will make his Brentford return against Nottingham Forest on January 20th but speculation persists over his long-term future. The 27-year-old’s eight-month ban for betting offences will be lifted next week and Toney will provide the Bees a massive boost as they aim to reverse their five-game losing run. Toney is undoubtedly Brentford’s best player and his impressive goalscoring form earned him an England call-up before his ban. With Euro 2024 quickly approaching, Toney will have ambitions of forcing his way back into Gareth Southgate’s plans to provide back-up to Harry Kane. Toney has scored 68 goals in 124 games for Brentford and he highlighted his pedigree by scoring a hat-trick against Southampton Under-23s in a recent B team game.