For Nicolas Jackson, this is just the start.

The striker has committed to Chelsea by signing a two-year contract extension. Chelsea has committed to the striker after a promising first season at the club, one that suggests there is plenty more to come.

Jackson’s adaption to a new team and a new league was not without some bumps in the road, but 17 goals scored in total was far from a shabby return. As noticeable was the improvement of his all-round game and the absence of unnecessary yellow cards that had become a talking point. Jackson agrees it was a promising beginning to life in blue.

‘The first season for any player or any striker that comes to Chelsea is not easy, but I did okay,’ he says.

‘I am not very happy with 17 goals because I played the whole season without injuries, but it’s okay. I did good, now I hope to continue and do amazing. I am still in the learning process, learning every day, and trying to improve what I can do, and work on what I cannot do.

‘It was not hard to adapt to the club because I could speak English and I’m a social person,’ he adds. ‘It was easy to talk to everybody and get to know people. The only problem was the weather, but I got used to it!

‘On the pitch I’m friends with everybody. It will always be like that. I hope this year together we will do more than last year and win something.’

Jackson uses a single word to sum up the biggest lesson he has learned about the Premier League: ‘intensity’. He quickly understood both the physical demands of playing 90 minutes week after week, and the mental exertions striving for consistency takes out of you.

Helping Jackson along the way are his teammates and coaches, who he is quick to praise for furthering his football education. He describes Enzo Maresca as an ‘amazing coach and person’ who is ‘more or less like a father’.

Maresca is the latest man to help develop Jackson’s exciting and instinctive attacking ability, unearthed on the streets of The Gambia when he was a young boy.

‘I was always an offensive player,’ he explains.

‘When I was young I was a number 10 or a false nine, because I like to move and drop deep. When I came to Europe, Unai [Emery, Jackson’s coach at Villarreal] changed that and put me as a fixed number nine, waiting for the ball and playing more in the box, trying to run in behind.

‘Unai changed all that, and I’m grateful. I try to work harder to improve every day in that position.’

Jackson’s skillset is well suited to leading the line. He is quick, strong, holds the ball up effectively but also has the deftness of touch that can make all the difference. Think of his clever assist for Cole Palmer’s goal in our win at Wolves, or the touch to pluck the ball out of the sky before finding the corner in last season’s handsome victory over Everton at Stamford Bridge. That is his favourite Chelsea goal yet.

There are many more to look forward to, of that Jackson is confident. He knows he will be judged by his goals. With that in mind, he is determined to keep developing and contributing to collective success.

‘I want to win trophies, to make Chelsea the best, put the team back where it was, and to win individual trophies as well, to help my club and country,’ Jackson states.

‘I am trying to work hard for that aim, but the most important is the team, and I hope with the team we will win many trophies together. These are the happy moments you can tell your family about. That’s the aim.’