A pendant reveals the secret: Joao Pedro declares war on Chelsea's historic curse

Chelsea's number 9 shirt earned its bad reputation the hard way. A string of flops built it, and several of those who wore it had arrived in west London with trophy-laden CVs behind them.

Fernando Torres stands as the most glaring case. The Spaniard joined amid enormous expectations but never came close to the player he had been at Liverpool, and the criticism piled up as his goal return dried up.

Others followed the same path. Radamel Falcao, Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain, Romelu Lukaku and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all took the shirt and all fell short. The circumstances differed, but the common thread was a failure to deliver consistency and turn hype into lasting goals.

Thomas Tuchel put a name to it. The former Chelsea manager called the number 9 shirt cursed, a phrase that captured the weight attached to it inside the club, according to the British newspaper "Telegraph".

Strikers weren't the only victims. Defender Khalid Boulahrouz and midfielder Steve Sidwell both wore it under Jose Mourinho, back when Drogba was tearing teams apart in number 11.

As the failures mounted, players began swerving the shirt altogether. Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku and Raheem Sterling all steered clear, and the decision became a talking point rather than a line in the squad list.

Tammy Abraham was the last to make the number count, scoring 15 Premier League goals in 2019-2020 before the run of struggles resumed. Before him, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink left his mark as a centre-forward until his exit in 2004.

So the shirt became a test of nerve as much as ability. Every new arrival had to score goals and shoulder the comparisons at the same time, which turned shaking off that reputation into a job far bigger than finding the net.

João Pedro has approached this story with a completely different spirit. Rather than treating the number as an added burden, he's made it part of his new image as Chelsea's first-choice striker.

Wearing it on his back wasn't enough. He also turned up in a necklace designed especially for him, the number 9 in oversized form, after two well-taken finishes against Bournemouth took his tally to five.

That necklace sent a clear message about his relationship with the shirt he'd long wanted. He isn't hiding from his history or ducking the pressure that comes with it. He's proud of it, and he wants to turn it into a personal trademark.

The same goes for his celebration. Pedro forms the letter "W" with one hand in front of his face, thumb of the other pointing down.

Online, the theory goes that the gesture is a nod to Kakashi from the Japanese manga series "Naruto". It's only added to the intrigue around the Brazilian's celebrations, which could, if this form holds, end up copied by young Chelsea fans at weekends.

More important than necklaces and celebrations, though, is what he's producing on the pitch. Every one of his goals this season has come from inside the penalty area, a sign of sharper attacking movement and an ability to find the positions that let him finish moves off.

Which brings us to Enzo Maresca's verdict last October, when he said Pedro wasn't the type of player capable of scoring 20 goals in a season. The Brazilian is now casting serious doubt on that judgement. His goalscoring instinct has developed, and so has the way he handles a chance.

João Pedro's development was no passing surge, nor the product of a few lucky bounces in front of goal. It came from a different reading of his abilities and from hard work on his movement inside the penalty area.

Sam Jewell, part of Chelsea's sporting leadership team, had signed the player for Brighton. He knew the potential well, and he understood the Brazilian possessed attributes that could be exploited far better than they had been at certain points in his career.

Liam Rosenior took charge of Chelsea as Maresca's successor at the start of the year, only to be sacked in April. During his spell, the work on Pedro sharpened into something far more specific. The coach believed the forward had everything required to become a prolific goalscorer, but that getting there meant refining the details of his movement rather than leaning on technique and close control alone.

No player received more individual sessions from Rosenior in those opening weeks. Reports indicate Pedro told his coach he wanted to be first-choice striker for both Chelsea and Brazil, an ambition that demanded he break some old habits on the pitch.

Through conversations and video analysis, Rosenior pushed him to occupy scoring areas more often and to stop burning energy in parts of the pitch that didn't need him.

The basic idea was simple. A forward doesn't have to touch every phase of a build-up to be influential. He has to know when to drift into the right space, and how to save himself for the moment that settles a match.

Pedro was also told to watch the world's best forwards, to study the positions they take and the zones they live in for 90 minutes. The focus shifted to details that look small but separate a forward who helps build play from one who turns chances into goals.

Joao Pedro did not need long for the results of the work he had undergone to show. He scored 11 goals in 12 matches, a run that began with Rosenior's second game in charge, against Brentford on 17 January.

Nothing captured the scale of his transformation better than that 4-1 hammering of Aston Villa, where Pedro helped himself to a hat-trick. The goal tally told only half the story. How he got them mattered more.

Two of those strikes at Villa Park came from simple touches in front of goal, the sort of detail that pleased the coaching staff more than some of the showpiece finishes he's long been accustomed to producing. A forward with high technical ability can dazzle a crowd with a piece of dribbling or a wonderful strike. But the capacity to finish attacks with the fewest possible touches remains one of the most important attributes of the great goalscorers.

Intelligent positioning brought the third, Pedro latching onto a pass from Alejandro Garnacho and rolling the ball into an empty net. That was a clear example of the improvement in his reading of attacks, and his ability to choose the right position before the ball reaches him.

These details are what the coaching staff sought to instil. The aim is no longer simply to improve the player's numbers, but to turn him into a more effective forward inside the penalty area, capable of making the most of chances that may not require exceptional skill so much as speed of decision-making and precision of positioning.

Xabi Alonso's arrival at Chelsea has handed Joao Pedro a different challenge. He has proved he can score goals and shown strong signs of his development. Now he has to sustain that level over a long season, rather than settling for spells of brilliance broken up by goal droughts.

Alonso has placed his trust in the Brazilian, but keeping it depends on how far Pedro can repeat those performances in every kind of game, whether against the big teams or against opponents who sit deep and choke off space.

Second in the Premier League scoring charts, immediately behind Erling Haaland, Pedro has a genuine chance to take on the Manchester City striker in the race for the Golden Boot. It also demands focus and consistency.

His problem in earlier stages of his career was never talent. The goals came in bursts, then his scoring rate fell away for long stretches. Confidence is growing that his recent development has left him better equipped for the demands of playing centre-forward, in terms of positioning, movement and finishing.

Whether he has broken the curse of the number 9 will take more than a strong start or a handful of exceptional matches to settle. Consistency is the real test for any forward chasing a place among the Premier League's leading scorers.

João Pedro now possesses what many of his predecessors in the number 9 shirt lacked: self-confidence, clear development in his attacking movement, and the technical support that helps him exploit his strengths, alongside a personal desire to prove he is capable of being the centre forward Chelsea need.

Score his first goal against Everton, in his eighth appearance against the Merseyside club, and Chelsea supporters will be asking an entirely different question. What's left of the number 9 curse?

Shaking off that reputation takes more than wearing the shirt and celebrating goals. He has to keep scoring when the chances dry up, and handle the pressure that has followed this number for years.

Pedro has already begun to change the picture. He has shown that tactical work, confidence and awareness of movement may matter far more than the myths surrounding numbers. Keep developing at this rate and he could be the man who restores the standing of the number 9 shirt at Chelsea, turning a historic curse into a new success story.