Chelsea secured their first win of the season in fantastic style, beating West Ham United 5-1.
After the highs of winning the Club World Cup in the summer, the Blues had a disappointing start to the campaign as they were held to a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace.
That made the game against West Ham all the more important, and despite conceding an early goal after a sloppy mistake from Estevao Willian, they bounced back.
The West Londoners smashed five past the struggling Hammers, and they did so without their best player – Cole Palmer.
Enzo Maresca hits back at Chelsea’s ‘Cole Palmer FC’ tag
Palmer suffered an injury during the warm-up ahead of Chelsea’s London Derby against West Ham on Friday night.
The Englishman had to pull out of the starting lineup as a result, and Irons fans would’ve seen that as an opportunity to get something from the game.
Lucas Paqueta gave West Ham the lead, and they showed some positive signs early on, but Chelsea showed why they are the Club World Cup champions by scoring five past Mads Hermansen.
Everybody knows Chelsea are capable of such a performance, but fans would’ve been encouraged to see their side play that way without Palmer’s usual influence.
Enzo Maresca was asked after the game if his side’s display against the Hammers would finally help get rid of the ‘Cole Palmer FC’ tag.
The Blues boss was not too pleased with that and replied, as per Football London: “You know already how I feel, that I don’t care about… You are there to say things, and people, in general, they are there to say something.
“The ones that they say that we are just a Cole team, for sure, Cole is our best player, no doubt. For sure, when we have Cole, we are a much, much, much better team.
“But I think we already showed last year, in two or three months, where Cole, unfortunately for us, was not 100 per cent. When we achieved top four, that no-one expected.
“And the most important thing, no-one asked me in the first season to finish top four in the Champions League. They asked me in two years in the Champions League.”
Enzo Maresca looking on during a game between West Ham United and Chelsea in the Premier League
Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
Cole Palmer’s stats at Chelsea show just how important he is
Maresca clearly doesn’t like the ‘Cole Palmer FC’ tag, but he admitted that the Englishman is the ‘best player’ in his squad.
The 23-year-old didn’t get too many opportunities at Manchester City, and nobody really batted an eye when Chelsea snapped him up for just £40 million.
However, Palmer hit the ground running as a Blue and is now one of the best players in the entire Premier League.
Games Goals Assists
Cole Palmer at Chelsea 98 43 29
72 direct goal contributions in 98 games is an outrageous return for an attacking midfielder. Those numbers show just how important Palmer is for Chelsea.
The Blues showed against West Ham that they are capable of destroying teams even without Palmer, but we’re sure they would rather have him available for every single game.
Chelsea have yet another London Derby coming up, this time against Fulham. It will be interesting to see if Palmer will be back fit for that game.