Back on form 

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Football has a habit of surprising even the most experienced fans. Such an example can be found at Stamford Bridge this season, where a squad made famous by the truly eye-watering sums of money spent on putting it together seem to be growing more and more reliant on a player that happened to join the club on a relatively low-key loan deal at the end of the summer transfer window. Alongside the likes of Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernández, one of Chelsea’s most important players this season has turned out to be none other than Jadon Sancho. 

Since the start of the new season, only four players can lay claim to having more goal contributions for Enzo Maresca’s side as Sancho has picked up two goals and three assists in nine league games. This was clear for all to see in Chelsea’s recent win over Tottenham, when Sancho stuck the ball in the back of the net 17 minutes into the match to kick off his team’s impressive comeback after conceding two early goals. When we add that to Sancho’s goal in the previous league game against Southampton and his two assists in Chelsea’s last European outing, it means that the English winger has now picked up four goal contributions in his new team’s last four games. And there’s little doubt that Sancho is looking back to his best at Stamford Bridge. 

How good has Sancho been at Chelsea this season?

The graphic above shows Sancho’s goal contributions per 90 minutes across all competitions, spanning from the 18/19 season to the current 24/25 season. During his time at Borussia Dortmund from 2018 to 2021, Sancho consistently performed at a high level and quickly gained a reputation for being one of European football’s most exciting, young players. His goal contributions per game steadily improved, starting at 1.00 in the 18/19 season, rising to 1.10 in 19/20, and slightly tapering to 1.09 in 20/21. After moving to Manchester United in the 21/22 season, Sancho experienced a dramatic dip in form, reflected in his goal contributions dropping to 0.29 per 90. His struggles persisted into the 22/23 season, with a slight improvement to 0.37 contributions per 90, but still far from his Dortmund levels. 

Interestingly, in the 23/24 season, Sancho returned to Dortmund on loan, where his contributions per 90 rose to 0.34, suggesting glimpses of his earlier form but not entirely replicating his peak years. The loan stint at Dortmund may have helped him regain confidence and rhythm, laying the groundwork for improvement. As well as an opportunity to get himself back to a level of match sharpness that has clearly had an impact this season, where his contributions per 90 have surged back to 1.07. This marks a significant resurgence, nearly matching his Dortmund peak and suggests that Maresca may have figured out how to bring Sancho’s Bundesliga performances to the Premier League. 

Why is Sancho thriving at Chelsea? 

While it may still be too early to definitively say whether Sancho will be a success at Chelsea, his first few months at the club do hint at a player that is far sharper in the final third for the Stamford Bridge club than he ever was for Man Utd. One major reason behind Sancho’s success at Chelsea could simply be the fact that while he made the move to Old Trafford as the club’s third most expensive signing ever at the time, his move to London in the summer was a far more low-key affair. And in stark contrast to the spotlight being firmly placed on him each and every week at Man Utd, Sancho arrived at Chelsea with very little fanfare at all and joined a squad packed full of more established names. 

This has perhaps been illustrated through Maresca using the on-loan talent sparingly in the Premier League to date. After making the move to Chelsea, Sancho wasn’t included in the first game against Crystal Palace, but then started the next five games in a row. However, after only playing for 45 minutes in that fifth game, the English talent was then rested for the following three games and didn’t feature at all, before then being used as a substitute twice and then as a starter on two further occasions in the next four matches. The same could be said of Sancho’s game time in Europe, where the winger wasn’t used at all in the club’s first three UEFA Conference League matches, but then played the full 90 minutes against Heidenheim and in return bagged two assists. 

Whether the stop-start nature of Sancho’s game time at Chelsea is down to Maresca keeping the player fit or simply due to the manager trying to shuffle an extremely large squad is certainly up for debate, but what isn’t is the fact that it seems to suit the winger perfectly well. And if he can continue scoring and creating goals at the same rate that we’ve seen from him so far this season, then Premier League fans may finally get to see the kind of player that dazzled football fans in Germany for so many years.