Like fellow Goal.com 50 entrant John Terry, Nicolas Anelka started the past season with a lot to prove having succumbed to a tortuous penalty shoot-out in Moscow during the concluding fixture of the 2008 Champions League, an epic climax against Premier League champions Manchester United.
Captain Terry seems to shoulder the brunt of banter with ease, aided by a forest of press-pages suggesting it was Anelka who technically lost Chelsea the prestigious continental competition. Terry's infamous slip forced sudden-death - the Blues were ahead by virtue of an erringly languid Cristiano Ronaldo spot kick at that point - and Anelka's soft attempted conversion, which was thwarted by Edwin van der Sar, ultimately proved decisive.
On top of that, the French striker, who had excelled in England's top flight before under the tutelage of talented nurturer Arsene Wenger through to his days leading the line for Bolton Wanderers, had a particularly rotten settling-in period at Stamford Bridge, and the omens did not bode well for a successful second season. Powerful striker Didier Drogba still appeared to be the preferential man to lead the line due to his predatory performances in the final third, and Anelka was, at first, deemed the reserve option in a 4-5-1 system.
An injury to the Ivorian international, though, proved to be Anelka's breakthrough.
Accolade-Magnet | Anelka fired his way to success
Anelka, an Avram Grant recruit, started the campaign in fine fashion as he stormed into an advantageous position at the head of the goal-scoring charts. The first half of the 2008-09 campaign was to be prolific for the Chelsea forward, marked by a stunning hat-trick against Sunderland and a pair of braces versus Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion.
His strikes were made all the more impressive when noting the variety. He scored close-range headers (Portsmouth, Bolton Wanderers, Watford), he capitalised on threaded through-balls (Manchester City), mopped up rebounds (against Bordeaux, Aston Villa), finished well-placed efforts (Hull City, Southend), cunningly dinked Paul Robinson (Blackburn Rovers), succeeded in one-on-one situations (Fulham), and arguably saved his best against the club that made his name - Arsenal - with a powerful long-range lash. For the latter, though, he failed to celebrated, despite Drogba's prompting.
Despite a two-month barren spell at the turn of the year, Anelka maintained his lofty position at the heights of the domestic scoring charts. The change of management brought with it a tactical shift. Under the guidance of brash trainer Luiz Felipe Scolari, Anelka was positioned centrally, but during cultured coach Guus Hiddink's interim spell, Anelka was jostled out wide.
Anelka was still productive from the right flank, and began to forge a formidable understanding with Drogba. The aforementioned strike against Arsenal arrived at the back-end of the season and perhaps epitomised his playing essence under the Dutch boss, as Anelka scored one and assisted in another in a 4-1 rout.
His final strike, against the Black Cats, earned him the title of the division's best goalscorer for the campaign, and his final accumulation of 19 ensured him one-goal-every-two-game status.
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