'I love his attitude': Alan Shearer admits he's been blown away by £32m Chelsea player this season

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After 13 games played in the Premier League, Enzo Maresca's Chelsea side are now up in third, level on points with Arsenal and only nine points away from top spot.

Many imagined that Chelsea would endure another season of transition given that Maresca would arrive with a differing playstyle to Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge.

However, the transition has been seamless, and Chelsea have dramatically improved.

Unai Emery noticed a change about Chelsea during their 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday, a match in which Nicolas Jackson opened the scoring.

Jackson took his tally to eight goals in 13 games this season, meaning he's well on course to better his 14 Premier League strikes last term.

Alan Shearer thinks Nicolas Jackson can score a ton of goals for Chelsea

Speaking on 'The Rest Is Football' podcast, both Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer discussed Jackson's improvement this season, a striker who is thriving under Maresca.

Shearer loved Jackson's attitude in front of goal and made an exciting prediction about what he can achieve before the end of May.

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Lineker began: "Nicolas Jackson as well, another goal. I know he could probably have had one or two more, but he gets in positions.

"He likes to get in behind – eight goals in the Premier League this season. I think we all saw something in him, didn't we?

"And he's definitely gradually improving, getting better, more confident – another important goal for him."

Shearer then replied: "We definitely did say there's something really good to work with there.

"He's very raw and still has a lot of work to do, but I love his attitude in terms of keeping getting in there and making it difficult for defenders.

"He got another goal and he was a constant threat throughout and should have had another two or three goals, perhaps.

"But he keeps getting on in there and that's what I love about his attitude – he'll get a load more this season because of that attitude."

Nicolas Jackson set for record-breaking season at Chelsea

Of course, the easiest way to praise Jackson at Chelsea right now is to realise that he's keeping both Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix on the bench.

Perhaps both are seen more as No.10s, but it's still commendable that 23-year-old Jackson hasn't been deterred by Chelsea continually adding players to compete for his spot.

In his career to date, Jackson is yet to go beyond 14 league goals – his highest tally for Villarreal was 12 in La Liga.

And given he's on eight goals already, it would be a considerable disappointment were he not at least able to set a new personal record.