Chelsea chief coach, Enzo Maresca, said Cole Palmer can do “what nobody expects” after his penalty ended a 16-week annotations drought to help win the Premier League Liverpool 3-1 champions 3-1 in Stamford Bridge.
Palmer looked at his best better and his goal in the detention time was nothing more than a justified dynamic individual exhibition since the blues gave a significant blow to the races to qualify for the Champions League.
Chelsea was excellent against a Liverpool team, certainly very changed, Arne Slot making six alterations to the team that secured the 20th title of the club a week ago, and any interruption he made at his rhythm was easily operated by the hosts.
Enzo Fernández swept the first in after three minutes, Jarell Quanseah only in his third league at the beginning of the season scored a strange goal of his own, then, after Virgil Van Dijk had briefly reduced the delays, Palmer alleviated months of frustration from the point after the fault of Quanseah in Moses Caicateo.
“We saw school day by day in the training field and he is exactly in the same way, scoring goals, happy,” said Maresca, whose side moved the level at points with Newcastle in fourth place.
“Surely when he does not score goals he is not happy and the reason why he is good to help the team and the club to reach something important.
“He is happy because he scored and won, but I didn’t see him different from three months ago. He scored 14 goals in (the first) 20 Premier League games.”
It can have a better bone for the England striker, but hit the interior of Virtualy’s post on the byline after a slaloming race.
“It is that son of the player who can do things that nobody expects,” said Maresca. “They are different players. When he has the ball, I expect anything because he can do anything.”
Palmer told Sky Sports: “I felt normal. Obviously a shit happens. I was three months without scoring, but I only give me more motivation, more fight to do it well, not only for me but for the team.
“You know that your own social networks are full of idiots, trolls or whatever, I do not pay attention. To write down today, I am happy. It’s just one and I have to keep improving to try to reach my levels.”
Chelsea gave Liverpool, who played for the first time since he was crowned champion, an honor guard before the start, thought it was a moderate exhibition on the side of Slot for which Wataru endo begins.
The gap between the teams is now in 19 points, although Slot reflected a point at the beginning of the season when Chelsea had briefly seemed to be the closest challengers of his team.
“I expected them to be a threat this season,” he said. “In Anfield they were better than us, they were so close to us. It is a complete surprise for me that we had 19 clear points. I did not do it at all when we played them.
“If a team like this with such quality, if we can be 19 points ahead of them, it is a great compliment to our players.”
