For one of his former team-mates, Joao Pedro’s form is no surprise as he said he always believed he could reach the top.
The Chelsea attacker is enjoying the best purple patch of his career, having scored 11 goals in just 13 appearances under Liam Rosenior.
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The 24-year-old has already surpassed the seven goals he scored following his £60million move from Brighton for Enzo Maresca.
He scored Chelsea’s fourth goal in their 4-2 FA Cup win over Wrexham on Saturday, which came just days after his first Blues hat-trick.
Rosenior, who described the Brazil international as “world class” and said he would not swap him with anyone, saw Joao Pedro up close for the first time while the pair were playing in the championship.
During his tenure as Hull City manager he managed it for the first time against Chelsea’s number 20, in a goalless draw against Watford in December 2022.
That day, Joao Pedro was joined in the Hornets’ attack by Udinese’s captain Keinan Davis, on loan from Aston Villa.
The pair played 25 times together at Vicarage Road in 22/23 and Davis had no doubt about the level his ex-teammate could reach.
“Top person” Joao Pedro would not surprise his ex-teammate with an Arsenal transfer
In fact, the 28-year-old admitted he wouldn’t even be surprised if Joao Pedro followed Kai Havertz and moved across London to Premier League leaders Arsenal.
“Yes, of couse [you could see it]” he told The Pitch Prospect.com exclusively. “You will see his quality in training.”
“Even when he plays with him, he’s Brazilian, so he just has that flair and belief in himself that he knows he’s a very good player.”
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“He’s a good guy too,” Davis continued to The Pitch Prospect.com. “He’s not being disrespectful or anything; he’s just a top human being.”
“So yeah, you could definitely see that you could make big steps.”
“Seeing him at Chelsea now is like… Even if he went to Arsenal or something like that, I wouldn’t be surprised; he’s very good.”
On paper, this Watford side now boasts the wealthiest attacking talent in Europe, with Ismaïla Sarr also part of a team that started this season under current Wolves manager Rob Edwards.
Crystal Palace talisman Sarr’s brace against Tottenham surpassed his goal tally from last season in 839 minutes less.
Davis, meanwhile, moved into second place in the Serie A Golden Boot race after scoring twice in as many games last week.
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The England youth international’s nine league goals in Italy are two more than the total he scored during his difficult loan spell at Watford.
“Obviously when I went there I thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a good opportunity to get promoted,’” Davis added to The Pitch Prospect.
“Hamza Choudhury was there too. We had a lot of great players.”
“I don’t know, it just didn’t work. Maybe, Ismaïla Sarr, he reached a stage where he was in the Premier League, he got relegated, he got promoted again. Maybe he wanted to leave this year.”
“Joao was on the rise. Joao was a top player. I think it’s just kind of an intersection of a lot of different things.”
“Obviously I got promoted at Nottingham Forest and when I went to Watford it wasn’t my first choice to go to Watford.”
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Keinan Davis: “I was a bit immature at Watford”
“So I think I was a little bit immature and just thinking a little bit in my head like I honestly thought I was somewhere else,” he added.
“So, yeah, it was just like that; this year has definitely taken a toll on me. Even though people ask me, ‘How was it?’ My answer would be: I was a bit immature at the beginning and you can’t go into a season like this and then expect everything to go well. So I took full responsibility for how I approached it.
“Throughout the season you talk to your friends and your family, but at the end of the season you think, and then I just knew how I approached it. I can’t do that because no one cares.”
“You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You can’t expect that. It just doesn’t work that way.”
“You have to put your head down and do what you have to do and prove it. This season I didn’t do that.”
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“The modern striker” Keinan Davis “has everything”
This season, however, Davis is more than proving his mettle with Udinese and is just one goal away from becoming the second-best Englishman in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
“This is definitely his best season since playing for Udinese,” his manager Kosta Runjaić told The Pitch Prospect.com.
“In the first season he had problems and even in the second season he had some injuries so he couldn’t get into the rhythm.”
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“And now, this season, he plays a very important role within the team, scoring goals, but not only that: he works hard for the team, he is able to keep the ball, a very talented player. And a player who makes a difference.”
“For me he is still a very young player, a very young striker, and we will see what the future brings.”
“He is a very modern striker, he has everything.”
“He has speed, technical ability, he has good feel on the pitch, he’s a good finisher. So he just needs games and he needs to play to find the rhythm to really become physically strong.”