Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler hails ‘very dangerous’ Chelsea star ahead of Saturday’s game

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Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has singled out one Chelsea player for massive praise ahead of this weekend’s fixture in the Premier League.

Chelsea host Brighton this Saturday afternoon in the league at Stamford Bridge. For the Blues, they’ll be hoping to keep up a decent start after collecting 10 points from their opening five league matches.

The Blues squad is looking extremely strong this season. It’s quite telling that Enzo Maresca made 11 changes for this week’s Carabao Cup tie at home to Barrow and still watched his side win 5-0.

Gary Neville has predicted Chelsea to beat Brighton on Saturday, which would make it three wins a row against the Seagulls if it happens.

• READ MORE: Chelsea predicted XI vs Brighton… Enzo Maresca makes Christopher Nkunku decision

Fabian Hurzeler waxes lyrical about Nicolas Jackson

Brighton coach Fabian Hurzeler has paid huge respect today to Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson during his pre-match press conference for the upcoming league fixture.

Blues striker Jackson, 23, is leading the line superbly well lately. In fact, the young centre-forward has four goals in the opening five league matches this season.

“I think he is the full package. He wants to combine. Sometimes he’s getting more space where he can combine with his teammates,” Hurzeler said via Brighton’s YouTube channel.

“He’s also very fast – he can attack the back. This mix, this balance, makes him very dangerous for us. Of course, he is a top striker and at the moment he’s in very good shape, so you can’t defend against them in a one-against-one.”

Nicolas Jackson on the rise

If you look towards the back end of last season, it was obvious that Jackson was only getting better. His all-round game has always looked very strong since he joined from Villarreal in the summer of 2023, but the question marks have been around his finishing.

Jackson scored 17 goals across all competitions last year during his debut season. Interestingly, he finished the campaign with four goals in his final five league appearances.

Now, the Senegal international has started this term in excellent goalscoring form as well and is riding a wave right now.

Pat Nevin thinks Jackson could reach 20 league goals this season. If he does, the Blues may finally have found the solution for their long-term problem in the No.9 position.