Nicolas Jackson has labelled Chelsea the "biggest club in England" after scoring a hat-trick to help the Blues claim a chaotic 4-1 away victory over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Monday night.
The Senegalese striker had only scored two goals in his first nine top-flight appearances this season following a "difficult" start to life with the Blues since joining the club from Villarreal in the summer.
However, Jackson put aside his early-season troubles to net three times in the final 20 minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to help Chelsea come from behind and claim maximum points against a nine-man Spurs outfit.
After Dejan Kulusevski opened the scoring for the hosts just six minutes in, Cole Palmer equalised from the penalty spot 10 minutes before half time after Cristian Romero was sent off following a VAR review for a high tackle on Enzo Fernandez inside the area.
Jackson missed a plethora of chances in both halves, but after Spurs were reduced to nine men when Destiny Udogie received two yellow cards, Chelsea's No.15 eventually put the visitors in front on the 75-minute mark, meeting a Raheem Sterling cross to tap home from close range before netting a similar finish set up by Conor Gallagher in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Three minutes later, Chelsea caught Spurs wide open on the counter-attack and sealed the victory when Jackson rounded Guglielmo Vicario, before slotting home his third of the night in front of a jubilant Chelsea away support to make sure that he took home the match ball on a memorable night in the Premier League.
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Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Jackson said: "I am very happy and it has been a difficult time for everybody in the team. We are coming back really slowly and happy to have scored three goals.
"[My start at Chelsea] has been very difficult, but life is like this. It's my first hat-trick, so I am happy to have done it with the biggest club in England and everywhere.
"I need to always improve and work harder," Jackson added. "We continue working. Tottenham have an amazing stadium and amazing fans, so we needed to fight and win the game.
"It was really difficult (when Tottenham went down to nine men) as they continued to maintain their line. We have quality players to give us the ball and we won. We were dreaming about winning the big games and the confidence within the team is coming really slowly."
Meanwhile, manager Mauricio Pochettino believes that his Chelsea side must build on their "deserved win" over his former club Spurs as they endeavour to climb the Premier League table.
Victory against Ange Postecoglou's side has seen Chelsea move up to 10th in the top-flight standings, three points behind the top seven and nine adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal after 11 games.
Chelsea are next in action on Sunday afternoon when they play host to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.
Oliver Thomas
