Nicolas Anelka Getting the Job Done for Chelsea

Nicolas Anelka has had his fair share of criticism this season, and I’ll hold my hands up to having questioned him myself on the odd occasion, but Sunday’s game against Blackburn saw the Frenchman move into double figures as the Premier League’s top scorer.

 

Irrespective of who the goals are coming against, he’s still doing the business. I wouldn’t call him a prolific goalscorer—has he ever been? But the goals are definitely coming.

 

Anelka hardly had the best start to his Chelsea career and even a transfer fee of £15million was questionable but then, as he pointed out himself, he wasn’t exactly accommodated by the man who brought him to the club.

 

Avram Grant, in his vast tactical knowledge and footballing wisdom, persisted in shoving Anelka either out wide or on the bench and he was equally as effective in both positions.

 

Now though, with Didier Drogba seemingly auditioning for the part of Chelsea’s next Arjen Robben and only able to give us the odd twenty minutes here and there, Anelka finds himself in the novel position of Chelsea’s front-man and he’s finding the back of the net with a little more consistency.

 

But that’s not to say it’s all about his goals either, because his game is clearly about a lot more than that. Whilst he’s always a threat, making a nuisance of himself in and around defenders, his runs off the ball create spaces his team-mates are more than happy to fill.

 

Even at the age of 29, Nicolas Anelka’s pace has the capacity to open teams up, drawing defenders in—and our midfielders are loving it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our goal average is a lot higher with Nicolas Anelka in the side.

 

As for the Chelsea manager who, to be fair, has always expressed his faith in the Chelsea striker, he maintains: “Anelka is trying every day in training to make (more goals) than he has and now he has more opportunities and scores more goals and that’s good for us—and for Anelka.”

 

And I’ve even seen the odd smile or two from Le Sulk lately.