The record Joao Pedro must smash to be deemed a success in his debut Chelsea season

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It certainly didn’t take long for Joao Pedro to make a good first impression with Chelsea supporters.

At the start of July, Chelsea confirmed the signing of Joao Pedro, 23, in a £60m deal from Brighton. Less than two weeks later, he won the first trophy of his senior career by helping the Blues lift the Club World Cup.

The Brazilian attacker halted his holiday to join Chelsea mid-tournament, and he scored three goals in his first three appearances for the club to quickly win over the fanbase, including a remarkable chip over Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the final.

Blues defender Levi Colwill admitted he didn’t realise Pedro’s true ability until he started training with him this summer.

The latest recruit from Brighton shone in the centre-forward position, linking up superbly well with Cole Palmer already during their brief time together. Can he now follow it up once the new season kicks off in mid-August?

• READ MORE: How much Joao Pedro earned for winning the Club World Cup in first three Chelsea games

Joao Pedro must smash his goal record to succeed at Chelsea

As mentioned above, it couldn’t have started much better for Pedro in Chelsea colours.

The forward’s impressive start means that expectation has immediately raised around him, though. For instance, Pedro was the most picked player in Fantasy Football after the initial launch of the popular game.

If the Club World Cup is anything to go by, he will be getting plenty of minutes as the No.9. Pedro claimed his best position is at striker, even though he’s got the flexibility to play on the wing or as a No.10.

What does Pedro need to do to make the 2025/26 campaign and his first full year at Chelsea a successful one?

The simple answer is to score a lot of goals.

However, Pedro is going to need to massively eclipse anything he’s done to date in his club career.

As you can see above, Pedro’s best return for league goals in a single season is the 11 he scored for Watford in the second tier a few years ago. He’s only hit double digits once in the Premier League, too.

The reality is that we would be expecting Chelsea’s star frontman to be scoring a minimum of 15-20 league goals, especially when they have the likes of Palmer, Enzo Fernandez and Pedro Neto as a supply line behind them.

For what it’s worth, we are confident that Pedro is ready to make the step up in his career and push for close to 20 league goals in the 2025/26 campaign. Ultimately, he will need to smash his individual goal record for a single year to be deemed a success at Chelsea by everyone.

Joao Pedro can emulate Chelsea purchases from Brighton

Rival fans often like to criticise Chelsea for their frequent raids on Brighton recently, but the proof is there that they are usually quite successful.

Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo, who joined from Brighton in 2022 and 2023, respectively, are now two of the first names in the Blues XI. As for goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, even he started to find form towards the end of last season despite some inconsistent form in West London since joining from the Seagulls.

It has taken time for the aforementioned trio to get to grips with Chelsea, but the difference is that Pedro looked like he belonged here from day one.

Jamie O’Hara tips Pedro to be a world-class signing, and we’re optimistic he can prove that on the pitch.