Chelsea are set to welcome back key duo Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson for their home match with Tottenham later this week.
Palmer missed the defeat to Arsenal before the international break with a slight muscular injury and then withdrew from the England squad because of the problem. There were some doubts whether the 22-year-old would be fit enough for the visit of Spurs on Thursday, but he returned to training on Friday afternoon and is now in contention to return to the squad.
As is Jackson, who has been missing with a hamstring problem since February 4, after returning to full training at Cobham last week. The pair, who cost Chelsea a combined total of £70million in the 2023 summer transfer window, have scored 23 of the Blues' 53 goals in the Premier League this season (43%) and will offer Enzo Maresca an enormous boost at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening.
A study conducted by OLBG has listed Palmer and Jackson amongst the Premier League attacking players with the lowest transfer fee per goal contribution, making them two of the most cost-effective players in the league.
OLBG carried out research to reveal the best value for money attacking and defensive Premier League players, based on factors such as average annual wage, goals, assists and clean sheets from last season. The OLBG team also had a look into the players with the lowest transfer cost per goal contribution for attacking players and clean sheets for defensive players.
Palmer has a £1.18m cost per goal and assist, with only Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins and Tottenham's Son Heung-min (£0.88m and £0.92m, respectively). Jackson, meanwhile, has a £1.61m cost per goal and assist contributions. For all of the signings BlueCo have made since taking over the club almost three years ago, these two represent a modern day bargain in the transfer market.
However, Maresca will be hoping the duo return in better form than before they got injured. Palmer is without a goal in his last 10 appearances in all competitions in what has been a slow 2025 for Chelsea's star attacker, while Jackson has not found the back of the net in his last eight outings.
Jackson's lengthy absence, which will be almost exactly a month by the time Chelsea go head-to-head with Tottenham, was particularly felt by Maresca, who was forced to experiment with playing wingers centrally because of the lack of No.9 options available to him. While he was not in blistering form pre-injury, his significance to the side in and out of possession is rather striking.
"Yeah, sometimes I think you need to play games without players to realise how important they are," Maresca said a few days after Jackson picked up the hamstring injury. "We said many times about Nico: he is important on and off the ball. Off the ball, his intensity is very good and on the ball, he is always a threat."