When teams started to focus on man marking Cole Palmer this season, that is when you know how serious of a player this guy is (as if we didn’t already know).
Palmer just picked up yet another award this week, and he will soon have to buy a bigger house to put them all in. There are so many awards around these days that I might start an SPTC one and then get Fab Romano to post the winner! Watch us rise!
Palmer became the first ever Chelsea player to be named the Football Supporters’ Association Men’s Player of the Year! To win an award that is voted for by fans, so rival fans too, is massive really. And he was competing against the likes of Rodri, Bukayo Saka, Ollie Watkins, and and Mo Salah to win it.
Whilst Palmer was being man marked, he has been enduring a quieter period. But even when he’s ‘quiet’, he is superb.
Palmer vs top 5 League midfielders this season (via DataMB:
🥇 Goals — 1st
🥇 Assists — 1st
🥇 Non-penalty goals — 1st
🥇 Expected goals — 1st
🥇 Shots — 1st
🥈 Expected assists — 2nd
🥈 Shot assists — 2nd
🥉 Key passes — 3rd
This is just absurd. He is literally dominating Europe with his data. Even with the stats he is not first in he is still there or there about.
I don’t think Palmer has perhaps been as good yet as he was last season, at least on the whole. But to still be putting out numbers like this is just incredible. And I’m by no means saying that he has been bad this season either – I think he’s been good. He’s just had to find ways of shaking markers, and that has been helped by other players stepping up as goal and assist threats for Chelsea this season and also Enzo Maresca allowing Palmer to play in between the lines and move with freedom to the half spaces.
His goal on Sunday would have also done him the world of good and I expect him to elevate now once again.
