"Week after week, he has been dropping off" - Emmanuel Petit unimpressed by one Chelsea star's performances

Former France star Emmanuel Petit has been left unimpressed by Chelsea star Joao Pedro. He believes that the Brazilian's form has dropped off this season, and manager Enzo Maresca needs to work on it.

Speaking to Snabbre, Petit said that Joao Pedro started well at Chelsea but has since fallen out of form. He pointed at Maresca opting to play Pedro Neto up front instead of the Brazilian, Liam Delap, and Marc Guiu in the 3-0 win over Barcelona last week, and said (via Metro):

"The striker curse might have got to Joao Pedro at Chelsea. It’s weird. There are two ‘curses’ at this club, the goalkeeper position and the number nine. Honestly, I was very impressed with him when he started at the Club World Cup, and then he did it again when he came back during the summer. But week after week, he has been dropping off. Look at the game in midweek against Barcelona."

"Pedro Neto was playing striker, and they have three strikers. They have three strikers, and none of them started against Barcelona. I looked at the game, I looked at the team sheet, and I looked at the players on the bench and I thought, what? There are three strikers on the bench? No one started the game? What’s going on? If I remember right, all of them were bought last season at the end of the season, and no one is playing in top games?"

The Blues signed Joao Pedro for £60 million from Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer. He did well in the FIFA Club World Cup, scoring against Fluminense and PSG, and has scored four times in the Premier League this season.

Former Chelsea star sends advise to Joao Pedro

Emmanuel Petit has told Joao Pedro to start scoring goals as strikers are always going to be judged by stats. He believes that the linkup play and assists would not matter, as everyone will be focused on the number of goals scored and said:

"I think Joao Pedro needs to understand that when you’re a striker, you’re judged on your stats. If you don’t score, it doesn’t matter. We don’t care what they do on the pitch until they score. That’s their mission. Their number one mission is to put the ball into the net. If you don’t do that, and this is the problem at Chelsea, when they start the game, they don’t score goals."

Chelsea face Leeds United in the Premier League on Wednesday, December 3, before taking on AFC Bournemouth in the league on Saturday and Atalanta in the UEFA Champions League next week.