Cole Palmer is Chelsea’s beacon of hope and the Blues can’t afford for that to be extinguished

Posted on by Harrison Burridge

Football is a simple game. There are two teams of 10 outfielders and one goalkeeper and whoever scores the most goals wins.

Chelsea have complicated the matter in recent years though. Goals have become hard to come by and consequently they have become accustomed to spending time outside of the European places.

Despite this another summer window has passed without a regular goal scorer signed but one name that came through the revolving door at Cobham was Cole Palmer and he holds the keys to the Blues’ success this term.

It was a transfer that raised eyebrows. £42.5 million for a player who, to the outsider, appeared settled at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City playing 25 times in the 2022/23 season and scoring in both their Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup success in August.

Was it a bargain? Did Chelsea overpay? Time will tell on those questions but one certainty can be found in Palmer’s performances and what he has added to a Chelsea team that were bereft of goals, creativity and confidence before his introduction.

Three substitute appearances, amidst a run of one goal in five games for the team, kicked off his career in royal blue before his first start against Brighton.

Under the Stamford Bridge lights on that Wednesday evening he announced himself to the Chelsea faithful with the assist for Nicolas Jackson’s goal. Finding a pocket of space in front of the opposition defence, a trademark of his game, he slipped the Senegalese striker in perfectly for him to convert.

In isolation it was the simplest of actions. Receive the ball on the edge of the box, turn and feed the waiting striker. Bread and butter for creative midfielders around the globe. But Chelsea have been crying out for someone to occupy those areas with that precision.

Moments like that one carried over into league action where the Englishman has grown into his own with goals against Burnley and Arsenal and a starring performance in the defeat against Brentford.

A run of form that has him registering 4.99 shot creating actions per 90 minutes in the Premier League. Raheem Sterling is the next best in the side with four and to put it into context, no regular player last season created more than 3.43. Kai Havertz was creating 2.21 per 90 minutes and the much heralded Joao Felix was registering under three himself too with 2.96.

Numbers like those are only the tip of the iceberg into explaining Chelsea’s deficiencies in front of goal. The Blues averaged exactly one goal a game in the league in 2022/23 but that has risen to 1.3 in the new season despite the aforementioned dry spell in September.

It is why the arrival and form of Palmer has caused widespread joy in the Chelsea fanbase. The club find themselves in a dark tunnel with a long journey to past glories ahead but Palmer is there shining a light in the right direction.

Take the Brentford game for example. It’s a classic case of where the club have fallen short in recent times. The Bees arrived and deployed a low block. A style that thwarts Chelsea and frustrates them to levels other teams don’t experience. Palmer in that game was a magnet to the ball.

Dropping deeper and deeper, the game was played at his pace with incisive cross field balls. Particular joy was found in the right half space that Brentford leave vacant and on two occasions his left footed clipped balls should’ve resulted in a goal for the Blues. They were two of his seven passes into the box in those 90 minutes where he also made 14 progressive passives and nine progressive carries. It was a performance of a man carrying the creativity burden on his back and executing with style.

The return of Christopher Nkunku looks to be around the corner and everyone connected with Chelsea will be hoping with that comes a source of goals but also take some of the pressure off Palmer who has excelled in his brief period in the limelight.

Ultimately when you strip things back, he is a 21 year old footballer enjoying his first regular starting role in a top Premier League team. There will be struggles mixed in with the moments of brilliance especially with the run of fixtures awaiting Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Although his introduction has definitely gone some way to simplifying the game for Chelsea.

Written and edited by Harrison Burridge (@hburridge2)

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