Cole Palmer, the passer – and the man who makes Chelsea tick
Cole Palmer 's first flash of brilliance in a Chelsea shirt, on his first start for the club in September 2023, was an assist.
In the 50th minute of a goalless Carabao Cup third-round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea won the ball in the opposition half and pushed forward quickly. Ian Maatsen slipped a pass into Palmer's feet just outside the visitors' penalty area. Rather than simply bring the ball into his stride, he used his left in-step to drag the ball back, shifting his momentum and rotating his body to face Jan Paul van Hecke .
Van Hecke quickly closed the distance, spreading his legs to try to cut off Palmer's dribbling and passing options to his left and right. The simplest solution was also the most stylish: Palmer nutmegged him with a ball into the space behind where Nicolas Jackson , arriving at the perfect moment, met it with a first-time shot that beat Bart Verbruggen low to his right.
Palmer has 32 goals and 20 assists in 57 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions since the beginning of last season. His spectacular scoring bursts at Stamford Bridge (three against Manchester United and four against Everton last season, followed by four against Brighton last month) have done most to establish his "Cold Palmer" reputation, coupled with nine nervelessly converted penalty kicks.
But there is a strong case to be made that passing is Palmer's most outstanding attribute — a case that the 22-year-old strengthened by pulling off one of the passes of the season to create Chelsea's blistering opener in a 2-1 win over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge last month.
A quick scanning look over each shoulder told Palmer — who is a doubt for the game against Arsenal on Sunday — exactly where Nicolas Jackson and Pedro Neto were as he waited to receive a pass from Malo Gusto deep inside his own half. A couple of sharp touches moved the ball to his right, away from the harassing Joelinton , and generated enough space for him to look up and measure a long, arcing pass around the Brazilian and into the space behind Newcastle right-back Tino Livramento .
Neto did not need to break stride to reach the ball ahead of Fabian Schar 's desperate slide, and Jackson only had to run into the Newcastle penalty area to get himself a tap-in...
Palmer's involvement in that goal highlighted one significant shift in his passing profile under Enzo Maresca compared with Chelsea predecessor Mauricio Pochettino: he is attempting 9.8 long passes (over 30 yards) per 90 minutes in the Premier League so far this season according to fbref.com , up from 6.4 per 90 minutes in 2023-24.
That may partly be a response to opposition tactics. In their first 10 league matches, Chelsea have already played two teams, Brighton and Newcastle, who attempted to play a notably high defensive line against them at Stamford Bridge. Against the former, Palmer hit this first-time golf shot that was perfectly measured for Jackson to reach and go around Verbruggen, only for his shot to be cleared off the goal line.
But it is also a consequence of his new positioning.
Pochettino deployed Palmer primarily as a right-winger given the freedom to drift centrally, whereas Maresca has largely started Chelsea's attacking talisman in what he likes to call the "right pocket" or half-space, with a true right winger — most often Noni Madueke — operating outside him on the flank.
As the below graphic illustrates, the zones of the pitch in which Palmer does the bulk of his creation have remained relatively constant since the start of last season; the big shift from Pochettino to Maresca is that he is simply starting in those zones rather than moving into them regularly from the right touchline.
Receiving the ball on the half-turn in the middle third of the pitch, Palmer can more regularly use his exceptional passing vision and execution to spring the fast runners in front of him free in transition, in a similar manner to Bruno Fernandes for much of his Manchester United career.
Palmer's passing is so good that he can spring them even without a transition situation.
Here, against Nottingham Forest last month, Madueke stepped on to the accelerator the moment his countryman received the ball just over the halfway line. Palmer's clipped pass carved through a narrow gap in the visiting defence to send Madueke racing into the penalty area.
It should come as no surprise that Chelsea lean very heavily on Palmer's passing for their penalty-box entries from open play this season, though Madueke's impressive combination of passes, crosses and carries in the below graphic underline the size of the threat posed by the right side Maresca has constructed.
Palmer's developing chemistry with Jackson was one of the bigger Chelsea stories of last season; the two men have now combined for 11 Premier League goals, putting them well on track to surpass the 36 league goals that Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard created for one another as long as they remain team-mates at Stamford Bridge.
But the Palmer-Madueke symbiosis has been given more room to flourish in Maresca's system. Four of Palmer's five Premier League assists in 2024-25 have been for Madueke, and the ease of their understanding destroyed Wolves in a 6-2 win for Chelsea at Molineux in August.
There it was not a case of Palmer springing Madueke with longer passes, but rather his mastery of the subtle art of timing and weighting shorter passes to give his team-mate an advantage.
For the second goal in Madueke's hat-trick, Palmer received the ball in a highly promising position with a two-vs-one against Toti Gomes . The key was to get the Wolves defender on his heels before committing to the pass, making it harder for him to recover to Madueke.
Palmer did exactly that, and his pass was so well timed and tailored to Madueke's movement that the Chelsea winger simply let the ball run across his body before shooting first time...
What makes Palmer a passer of rare talent is that he is every bit as adept at finding the right solutions in small spaces as in big ones.
Early in the second half against Brighton, Wesley Fofana won the ball back high up and found him on the edge of the visiting box. Without looking, Palmer shaped to pass or shoot left and, knowing Madueke would be attacking the space to his right, slipped a no-look pass perfectly into his team-mate's stride...
"It's a good connection," Madueke said of Palmer during a press conference when the pair were on England duty last month. "Firstly, we've been playing with each other for a very long time now — since we were under-15 here at England. I feel like that's one thing. I feel like we're very good friends off the pitch, so he probably looks for me a lot, just as I look for him.
"He's got a killer pass, and I'm very dynamic, so I think it just works."
Maresca's use of Palmer continues to evolve. For the Newcastle win, he moved his star attacker from the "right pocket" to the "left pocket" to get him away from the marking attentions of Joelinton. He repeated the trick, to somewhat lesser tactical effect, against Manchester United at Old Trafford last weekend.
"We tried to move him and give him some different options and space," Maresca said of Palmer in his press conference before the United match. "But he's going to be marked man to man in so many games."
Palmer's positioning is having ripple effects throughout Maresca's team, from the benching of Enzo Fernandez to the unexpected re-casting of club captain Reece James as a left-back. But wherever he plays, his passing will continue to be fundamental to the way Chelsea attack.
The below graphic shows just how heavily involved Palmer is in Chelsea's attacking sequences as a shooter and passer so far this season, and his 2.5 chances created compare favourably to the vast majority of his Premier League peers.
Palmer's level of influence on Chelsea's attack is more impressive considering that he is actually registering fewer touches (51 per 90 minutes, down from 60.5), attempting fewer passes (41.6, down from 48.8) and taking slightly fewer shots (3.2, down from 3.5) than he did last season according to fbref.com . Even with lower quantity, his quality is shining through.
"Cole is doing very good, and I said at the start of the season that if we expect 20 goals and 20 assists from him again, then that's wrong," Maresca added before the United game. "We shouldn't put that pressure on him. He needs to enjoy his football and when he does that, you can see what he can do.
"Cole plays well even when he doesn't score because he allows the rest (of the team) to play in the right way. He's a very important player for us."
Maresca's public comments do just as much as his tactics to make the broader point: excellent scorer though he may be, Palmer the passer is what really makes Chelsea tick.
(Top photo: Benjamin Cremel/AFP via )
