Chelsea's top scorer in the league last season, Mason Mount, had just 11 goals. It was enough to scrape by in third spot but nowhere near the levels of Manchester City and Liverpool who both scored 20 times more than Thomas Tuchel's Blues.
Surprisingly, Fulham's own top-scorer last term got nearly four times the amount of Mount, with Aleksandar Mitrovic bagging a staggering 43 Championship goals in 44 games, with seven assists as a nice addition. Albeit in the league below, his season was truly astonishing.
It was evidence for many that the 28-year-old had finally matured into the player he had always promised to become. With interest in Mitrovic going back to his Anderlecht days, Chelsea have liked the striker but seemed to have been proven right in leaving him alone after a return of 14 goals in 64 games before this season.
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The Cottagers are onto a winner now though and are thriving with their Serbian forward. He has six goals this campaign already, just three less than Chelsea's entire team, and is showing his class on the big stage. His form has also been taken to his national side, where another big record has been broken.
With his Serbia side beating Norway 2-0, a game in which leading Premier League marksman Erling Haaland was unable to contribute, Mitrovic grabbed his 50th international goal. In just 76 matches, that is quicker than both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi achieved the feat.
His second half strike was also his sixth goal in four matches for his country and beat the time it took Messi and Ronaldo by some distance. The Argentine took 107 matches to reach half a century whilst Ronaldo's came up in his 117th outing for his country.
It's good company to be beating for Mitrovic, who only missed out on beating Harry Kane by five games, and is now comparable to the Tottenham striker who has 51 in 75 caps. His quality has also been noticed straightaway by former Chelsea winger Willian, who said in an interview with The Athletic: "Aleksandar [Mitrovic] is a very good player. He reminds me of Didier Drogba and Diego Costa. He is strong, he can hold the ball, can attack space and can score goals like them."
Potter's first Chelsea match was set to be against Mitrovic's Fulham side but was postponed due to Queen Elizabeth II's death in the week before the game. To a certain extent the Blues may have been lucky to be given time to prepare for the striker who they now won't face until after the World Cup and likely well into 2023.
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