Chelsea legend John Terry has showered special praise on Blues summer signing Joao Pedro, claiming the player is one of the best strikers in the Premier League.
Pedro, 24, hit the ground running at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup after departing Brighton & Hove Albion in a £60 million deal last July. He scored three times in the Club World Cup, helping the Blues lift the trophy in the process.
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The Brazilian has maintained his fine form in the ongoing 2025-26 season as well, finding the back of the net 18 times in 39 games across competitions for Chelsea. He has also laid out nine assists for his new teammates so far.
After Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior labelled Pedro a ‘world-class striker’ earlier this week, Terry has echoed a similar sentiment about the former Watford star. The 45-year-old former Blues captain said on TikTok (h/t Metro):
“Big praise from Liam Rosenior this week for Joao Pedro who has been in excellent form and we are very lucky to have him. He’s scoring goals but the variety of goals he scores, he scores goals with his left foot, he scores goals with his head. He shows great composure one-on-one where he does that little dink over goalkeepers as well.”
Likening Pedro’s playing style to Blues icon Didier Drogba, he added:
“I think his link-up play has been excellent as well, it’s got better and better week after week and that’s only going to grow and improve as he grows and gets a little bit older. It just enables you to hit him. We had the same when Didier played as well. You can hit him when you’re under a little bit of pressure and get yourself up the pitch and in the opposition half.”
Lauding the Brazilian’s work rate off the ball, Terry concluded:
“I love that he does the dirty work as well. When strikers are prepared to do the dirty work, it makes everyone else’s job a little bit easier and he’s often the one setting the tone in games as well. I’m expecting loads more to come from him, he’s certainly up there with the best strikers in the league this year.”
How have other Chelsea strikers performed?
Apart from Joao Pedro, Chelsea also signed another striker in Liam Delap in 2025. Subsequently, the Blues sent Nicolas Jackson on loan to Bayern Munich, and sold Christopher Nkunku to AC Milan last summer.
Delap, 23, has struggled to find his feet amid Pedro’s excellent run of form. He has netted just three goals in 34 overall matches for his new side since leaving Ipswich Town for around £30 million last June.
On the other hand, Marc Guiu has only made 12 appearances across competitions for the west London outfit this season, scoring just two goals.
Edited by Debkalpa Banerjee
