Chelsea have a brand new undroppable star as £51m transfer overhaul set to continue

Pedro Neto may have only scored four Premier League goals for Chelsea but they were important ones. He bagged the equaliser at home to Arsenal for his first in November and also goals in two slender wins.

His stoppage time winner at Fulham was the catalyst from Tyrique George's spark that ignited the end of Chelsea's season. Even when moved centralled to eventually cover for Nicolas Jackson - because Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku simply did not work as false nines - he was a livewire.

Neto ended up setting up two goals in the final four games as well. He crossed for Levi Colwill's crucial tap-in at Nottingham Forest on the final day and set up Enzo Fernandez's opener at home to Liverpool a few weeks earlier.

Compared to Chelsea's other attackers, Neto's relatively average output was actually significant. Noni Madueke, for example, failed to score or assist in any of his final 11 league games.

Palmer, in the league, went off the boil with only one goal between January 15 and May 25 - 16 matches. He did assist two in that time, both as decisive goals to earn four points, but only scored twice from open play after the turn of the year.

Jadon Sancho, who had initially kept Neto out of the team on the left, went four months without a shot on target. Like almost all of Chelsea's forwards, he lost all form and confidence in December and never really discovered it.

Neto had the complete inverse. He started extremely slowly and made the £51million transfer fee paid last summer for him look even more questionable than it had been at the time.

In the end, Chelsea needed Neto. Jackson couldn't rediscover the early-season form to fire Chelsea on. Marc Cucurella was the most prolific player in 2025. Fernandez came up big with goals of his own.

It is Neto who has a claim to have been Chelsea's best forward this year. His is behind maybe only Moises Caciedo, Cucurella, Fernandez, and perhaps Reece James in the list of top performers.

This certainly did not appear likely at the start of the season. The way Neto finished off, though, has transformed how Chelsea plan going forward.It is Madueke who is under pressure to keep his spot in the team, now on the left wing.

With no natural alternative, Enzo Maresca was increasingly willing to turn to Madueke in favour of one-on-one match-ups against full-backs. Although Madueke did well, output did not follow.

Meanwhile, Neto has been providing on the right. He was ineffective when used on the left initially himself but took over when Madueke and Jackson were injured in February. Chelsea's resources were spread thin and the lineup of Sancho, Christopher Nkunku, Palmer, and Neto did very little during a desperate period.

Neto eventually got things moving when pushed centrally away to Aston Villa. From there, he assisted four times before the end of the season and scored half of his league goals in a crucial blitz.

Now at the Club World Cup and Neto has continued his form.He has scored three times in four matches so far. In a variety of different roles, Maresca is sticking with Neto over Madueke.

When Palmer was used as a winger in a 4-3-3 against Flamengo - an experiment which even the head coach will admit did not work - Neto shifted to the left and Madueke was dropped. Against Benfica, in the last-16, Palmer went to a new left-sided role himself and it was Neto tasked with holding the width on the right.

He will have his work cut out moving forward to stay at the forefront of Maresca's thinking. Estevao Willian will arrive later in the summer and hopes to deliver on all of the promise shown in Brazil.

The teenager is not going to walk into the team and will likely need at least 12 to 18 months to really settle, grow, and develop into being anywhere near close to Premier League ready. Neto, nonetheless, has added competition.

Having won the battle, for now, with Madueke, he knows Chelsea have plans to keep improving. Estevao is on the way and Geovany Quenda is set to follow.

The Sporting CP winger will join in 2026 after staying in Portugal for another year of experience. Again, Quenda is extremely raw and will need time, but Chelsea have not waited around. They are ploughing on with talents they view as being at the elite level.

Neto has some going if he is to keep these two out of the side for long. The good news is that despite a set of injuries from his latter years at Wolves, Neto has stayed fit.

He has been readily available for almost all of the season, which is a welcome addition. It was his fitness that robbed him of well over two seasons worth of football between 2020 and 2024.

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The 2,200 league minutes he managed at Stamford Bridge are the most he has played since his second year at Wolves. The injuries that followed saw him go from exciting prospect status to risky investment.

Chelsea will now be seeing it as a successful buy and one that is justified. That was not always how it looked like going. By December, serious questions over the deal were being aired.

Neto has since made himself a key part of Maresca's attack and will back himself to fight off Mohammed Kudus or any other forward who might come inafter Jamie Gittens and Joao Pedro (two left-side dominant figures). Kudus, though, is one of those who could be turned to if Madueke was to leave.

Losing that place in the standing is no longer Neto's concern. It is Madueke who must get back up the pecking order. Neto is one of the first names on the teamsheet.