Cole Palmer fired Chelsea to a 3-1 victory against Wolves at Molineux on Saturday afternoon, and Liam Rosenior was mightily impressed with the Blues talisman
18:12, 07 Feb 2026
Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior
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Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior
Liam Rosenior has spoken to the media following Chelsea's win over Wolves. Cole Palmer fired the Blues to a 3-1 victory at Molineux on Saturday afternoon, completing his hat-trick shortly before the break.
The Chelsea talisman broke the deadlock inside the opening quarter of an hour, giving his side a much-needed lead after a nervy start. Palmer doubled the west Londoners' lead a few moments later, beating Jose Sa, again, from the spot.
The 23-year-old midfielder scored his third of the game just before the break, latching onto a cross by Marc Cucurella. Wolves leapt out of the gates in the second half, with Tolu Arokodare pulling one back from close range.
Chelsea squandered a couple of opportunities to put the tie to bed, but they held Wolves at bay and secured three crucial points in the race for top-four. So, with that being said, football.london has rounded up every word Rosenior said in his post-match press conference.
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Congratulations on the win. I just wanted to ask about Cole Palmer. I wanted to ask how have you asked him to adapt under you? How do you see his kind of role under you?
Same as he's always been. I don't want him to change, that's for sure. We changed the system a little bit for the first time. In the first half, the players, to put that into practice the way that they did, some of our passages of play.
Obviously, Cole gets three goals, but some of our football was everything I wanted to see, and he was a part of that. In terms of Cole, we know what a world-class player he is.
He's played a lot of football for the last year, with not much rest, but when he's at his best, he's unstoppable, and I'm delighted to be working with him.
What did you make of the way your side reacted to conceding? It felt like they went to take the sting out of the game a little bit.
Yeah, there are different ways you can control games. I challenge the lads at halftime. The last time Chelsea played here, I think they were three-nil up, and the game came to 4-3. So I mentioned that to them at half-time, said we want to go on.
I don’t want to make excuses because I want us to be perfect all the time. I wanted the same performance in the 2nd half as in the 1st half. But when you can see the goal, it changes the momentum and the flow of the game.
I saw the frustration, which I liked, in the players not keeping a clean sheet. And sometimes if you have the ball, the other team can't score. I'd like us to be more offensive at times, but I think the 1st half was a really, really good platform to build on.
Cole’s goal from open play is that, is that just the sort of football you want Chelsea to play? That's the blueprint?
Yeah, that goal. Starts with Rob. We bounce through, make an overload in the middle of the pitch. We use the overload on the 2 vs one on the other side, cut back, Cole scores a goal.
It was a very, very pleasing goal and hopefully I'd like any goals, but that's the type of football that we want to play. I want to play, and it was a really, really great finish.
Fernandez, he played towards the left, which I don't think we've seen before. How helpful is that for you as a manager?
No, it's amazing. Enzo's playing in exactly the same position that he's been played in probably 80 to 90% of the season, which is in the left pocket. That's where he plays.
Actually, he's got more freedom because we're interchanging a little bit more from our system and from our structure. Without the ball, he’s on the left, so that's probably why it looks different today because of the way Wolves played. He's not changed his position, to be honest. It looks that way, but his position in possession is the same.
Can I just check on Reece James?
Yeah, Reece, unfortunately. He's so close, and he should be fit for Tuesday. I know I said that today, but honestly, at the moment with the games that we've got, everything is day by day.
He's really, really close. There's not a major problem at all, and it'd be great to have him available for Leeds on Tuesday.
Liam, what is the issue with Reece?
It's just a knock. It’s a pain management issue, and to be honest, Reece was out running yesterday, but just wasn't right, and it's not right. Again, we're still in the midst of a really, really difficult period of games for demo games that we've got. Hopefully, he comes back fully, fit, and fully rested for Tuesday.
Can I just go back to Cole and his celebration. He had his hands over his ears a little bit. Obviously, it's not been an easy season, because he's had his injury issues, but can moments like this just propel him to that stratospheric level?
He is already there. He's already there. He doesn't need to change. When he's fully, fearfully firing, feeling good, he's a magnificent footballer. But when you're at a club like, at this club, with the huge demands and scrutiny, which I'm starting to learn myself.
You have to block out the noise, and you have to remember what a good player you are. I love working with him. He loves being here, and hopefully, now we can really enjoy his football between now and the end of the season because it will help us on the pitch.
You never want your team to concede goals, but how frustrating was that for you, and did it slightly change what came after or not really?
Yeah, very frustrating. You always want to keep clean sheets. Whether it was the 10 minutes against Crystal Palace or the 1st half against West Ham or the 1st half against Napoli or in moments because we still play some good stuff in the 2nd half today.
I want us to have a perfect 90 minutes; that's my job, and I don't want us to switch off from set plays. I don’t want us to give cheap chances away. And that's something for us to improve on.
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And I think when we do have more time to work on things and how we manage games, there's a lot of game management, things we need to look at. I think we can be even more difficult to beat.