IMAGO Nicolas Jackson deserves to be silencing his Chelsea doubters after an excellent start to the season, yet the striker continues to be labelled insufficient to lead the line at Stamford Bridge.
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Beyond Erling Haaland, there is not a centre-forward in the Premier League who can match up to the start of the 23-year-old this season.
On Sunday, he netted his fifth goal of the season against Liverpool, busting through the backline to score with a composed finish. On top of this, he also has three assists.
With eight goal contributions in eight games, Jackson might have felt he was due some respite from the critics.
He has got it - but only to a certain extent. The prevailing theory is that he remains unproven and Chelsea still need a world-class option ahead of him.
"I think we know where their deficiencies lie with Chelsea," Gary Neville told Sky Sports. "Nicolas Jackson can be part of a successful squad and he can do well but I do believe if they had a world-class striker in front of him, they would have a team that could potentially win a title in a few years' time and catch Liverpool up."
The Premier League's best striker? Signed from Villarreal last summer, he netted 14 times in his first Premier League season but was criticised for his wastefulness.
The signs are, though, that he is refining his game under Enzo Maresca.
Data analytics experts SciSports rate him as the best Premier League striker of the season in 2024/25 - yes, even ahead of Haaland - and while this may be based off a relatively small sample size in minutes (SciSports reckon at least 900 are required to get a fully reliable estimate), what is encouraging is that SciSkill Development has climbed sharply over the last six months.
Jackson vs Premier League strikers: 2024/25 -+ Nicolas Jackson Name here age and club here
Jackson's Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) has also reached a new high. The African is now worth EUR46.8 million, according to FootballTransfers' unique algorithm.
Chelsea's policy of signing young stars and tying them down with the idea of developing them over the long term might have been widely mocked after two disappointing seasons, yet here, finally, is concrete proof that it can work.
Signing a "world-class" striker now would relegate Jackson back to the bench and, potentially, undo much of the progress that he has enjoyed over the course of the last six months.
Of course, his strong start to the season might prove to be just that and no more, but the evidence points in a different direction.
Rather than following Neville's advice and spending EUR80 million on Victor Osimhen, EUR100m on Viktor Gyokeres or another large fee on someone else entirely, it's time Chelsea put their faith in Jackson.