Troy Deeney has hailed Chelsea striker Joao Pedro as the “signing of the summer”.

The BBC pundit has praised the Brazilian for the impact he has made since joining the Blues, and he thinks he could well be a better addition than a £241m Liverpool duo:

“For me, he’s been the signing of the summer so far. A load of talk about Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz and all these different players, but Joao Pedro has hit the ground running at Chelsea.”

“That team kind of feels like it’s his already; it feels like he’s going to be the one who’s going to be that special piece.”

Pedro has had a superb start to life at Stamford Bridge

Since joining from Brighton for an initial £55m in early July, the forward has found the back of the net 5 times in just 6 appearances.

Pedro has been very adaptable as well. Despite starting his first 4 matches for the club as a centre-forward, he has been deployed in a deeper role in the last 2 fixtures due to the injury sustained by Cole Palmer.

It hasn’t affected the 23-year-old’s performances in the slightest, having scored 2 goals and contributed 2 assists in the games against West Ham and Fulham.

Chelsea will be relying on him after the international break

With Liam Delap expected to be sidelined for up to two months after sustaining a hamstring injury, and Nicolas Jackson having left for Bayern Munich, Pedro will be given the task of leading the line in upcoming fixtures.

So far, the Brazilian has demonstrated that he is very capable of being the club’s No.9, and he will cement his position over the coming weeks if he continues scoring at the rate he has been doing so far this season.

Read more about the Chelsea First Team Squad for 2025/26 here