Does Jackson's profligacy hint at better times ahead?
To score goals you have to miss chances.
As Alan Shearer - the best goalscorer the Premier League has ever seen - has said, "not being afraid to miss again is part of what separates good forwards from the elite".
Nicolas Jackson is not elite. Yet. He is raw, unrefined and inconsistent.
On Saturday, his finishing cost his team in the FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester City. But, he gets chances and he keeps coming back for more.
At Wembley, he unsuccessfully attempted to round Stefan Ortega when clean through on goal in the first half and had two close-range efforts in succession blocked by the City goalkeeper in the second.
However, Jackson's appetite to drive with the ball, run in behind, and put himself in the right positions, never waivered.
That has been true for most of his mixed but promising debut season at Stamford Bridge. He has underperformed his Premier League xG of 13.9 - scoring 10, with no penalties - but he has never hidden.
It stands to reason more of these chances will find the net once he is into a second season and more familiar with his club and team-mates. Strikers rarely become cold blooded, clinical marksmen overnight - see Darwin Nunez at Liverpool - but a gradual improvement from a solid base is eminently possible.
That he has nobody to really share the goalscoring spotlight and burden with is an oversight from the owners and no fault of his own. He has had to be the main man in a year where he should have been learning in a supporting role.
Jackson would be a far bigger cause for concern if the reason he was missing chances was that he was not getting them, rather than needing to hone his composure in front of goal.
