Jamie Carragher has just made a fascinating comparison between Chelsea star Cole Palmer and Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
Even though Cole Palmer has dipped in form during 2025, he’s still been the talisman for the Chelsea side this season. It was obvious how much they missed him through injury in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat away to Arsenal in the Premier League.
The attacking midfielder set such incredibly high standards during his debut year at Stamford Bridge, so everything he does is firmly under the microscope.
Season Appearances Goals Assists
2024/25 (Current) 33 14 6
2023/24 45 25 15
Cole Palmer for Chelsea across all competitions
Without a doubt, Palmer should be playing in the Champions League with his special individual talent. The Blues are in a tough battle to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition, even though they are fourth in the Premier League table right now.
Interestingly, Palmer’s contract at Chelsea doesn’t include any clause allowing him to leave if the club miss out on the Champions League.
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Jamie Carragher notices Cole Palmer sometimes gets annoyed like Steven Gerrard did
Pundit Jamie Carragher, who’s a Liverpool legend within his own right, has made an interesting comparison between Chelsea’s Palmer and Reds icon Steven Gerrard.
During his playing career, English midfielder Gerrard carried the Liverpool team on his back for many years as the Reds captain. In fact, Carragher has said that his former teammate would sometimes get frustrated on the pitch when others weren’t up to his standard.
He’s started to notice that something similar may be happening with Palmer at Chelsea.
MORE CHELSEA STORIES
Carragher said on The Overlap: “I was commentating on the Brighton vs Chelsea league game about a month ago. I was watching it, and you know I’m a huge admirer of Cole Palmer. He played two passes early on that were out of this world; he whipped it around here and put someone in. But the longer the game went on, the more you could see his frustration with his teammates.
“Do you know what it reminded me a little bit of? Stevie [Gerrard] used to get like that at times at Liverpool because he was so much better than everybody else. It was like he was frustrated. Stevie was a local player; he was never going to leave, really. He nearly went a couple of times, but to actually do it was a bigger thing than the thought of doing it. Whereas Cole Palmer is not.”
Speaking earlier in March, Graeme Souness defended Palmer by insisting that the body language of Chelsea’s attacking midfielder is still exemplary.
While we agree that the Blues star is still putting in 100 per cent, we’ve also spotted signs of frustration from him. Like Carragher mentioned above, Chelsea’s 3-0 league defeat away to Brighton in February was a real low point.
It does feel like at times Chelsea rely solely on Palmer to produce a piece of magic for them.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
What Enzo Maresca recently said about Cole Palmer’s future
Even though Palmer is on a huge long-term deal with Chelsea that doesn’t expire until the summer of 2033, we can understand why people will talk about his future.
Back in February, Maresca spoke about Palmer’s future and his comments should worry Chelsea supporters. The Blues head coach said: “First of all we need to see how we finish. Then, in case we don’t finish in the top four, we’ll see if Cole is happy or not happy.”
It would be a disaster to lose a player of Palmer’s ability, especially because he’s the glue in a mediocre attack.
In an ideal scenario, the club will finish strongly to secure a spot in next season’s Champions League and win a piece of silverware with the Conference League.