Through their late-winter lull, with goals and flair in short supply, this international break took on the qualities of a distant oasis for Chelsea, one that if Enzo Maresca’s side could just reach with their Champions League hopes in tact, might just provide the refreshment to revive their season.
In the end, they managed more than that. Helped by kindly-timed home fixtures against Leicester and Southampton, the general shape of a top-four race defined by its inconsistencies, and the fact that it now looks almost certain to in fact be a sprint for the top-five, the Blues start the run-in in a strong position.
Fourth in the table (though they could be as low as seventh by kick-off against Tottenham next Thursday), Maresca’s men have their fate in their own hands, not to mention a shot at silverware via the Conference League. As the Italian has said repeatedly, for all their form to this point has been volatile, they would have taken this scenario when the campaign began.
Still, though, there is a sense that at least one, and maybe even both, of those twin aims will not be achievable unless Maresca finds a way to fire his attack back into life.
Take those home games against soon-to-be Championship clubs out of the picture and the Blues have scored only once in their last three league games. In the two blanks - defeats at Arsenal and Brighton - they could have played all night and not scored.
The returns of Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have long been billed as the moment at which previous order might be restored and Chelsea flipped back into the dynamic, incisive team that surpassed all expectation prior to Christmas.
Jackson has not played since suffering a hamstring injury against West Ham on transfer deadline day at the start of February, and Madueke not since limping off with a similar issue in the aforementioned loss at Brighton six weeks ago.
Whether, in reality, the more controlling approach Maresca has steadily embedded in his side as his tenure has worn on means that early-season tempo is gone for good remains to be seen. But there is no doubt that in Jackson and Madueke, the Blues have missed their two most chaotic, off-the-cuff forwards, players whose rawness can be a curse, but a blessing, too.
Without them, Chelsea have looked too predictable in attack and it is no shock that Cole Palmer’s downturn has coincided with those absences. Pedro Neto has been the pick of Chelsea’s forwards through this period, often used out of position as a No9, but he, like Jadon Sancho and Christopher Nkunku, still lacks end product. Madueke, though hardly a ruthless finisher, has only one fewer league goals this season than that trio combined.
How much can be expected of the returning pair, and how quickly?
Though Jackson is second only to Palmer in Chelsea’s league scoring charts, on nine goals, his season, like the Blues’s more broadly, has been one of two distinct halves.
All of those goals came in the 23-year-old’s first 15 games and at the time of his injury he was on an eight-game goal drought, the worst of his Chelsea career. We still do not know whether that early season flourish was a purple patch or genuine improvement from a striker still learning his trade.
Madueke, meanwhile, has seen his stock soar during his time out, but it is worth remembering that he had only just recaptured a regular starting berth when picking up his injury.
He started Chelsea’s last five league matches for which he was available, but prior to that made the XI in only three out of eight, amid competition form Sancho and Neto, and more than one reprimand from Maresca about his training ground attitude.
Jackson has been back in training this week, while we await a further update on Madueke, who as of Maresca’s last media interaction was on course to be back to face Spurs next week, too. Palmer is in the same boat, having skipped international duty with a minor problem.
Throw in Neto and you have a quartet that has become strangely crystallised during their separation as Chelsea’s first-choice attack. How often Maresca is able to field it may define how far his side’s season goes.
