Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has addressed the absence of Cole Palmer from the team that beat West Ham 5-1 at the London Stadium yesterday. Speaking to the press after his side’s dominant victory, the Italian addressed the press, telling Football London:
“Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%. Today he tried the warm-up, but he felt something. So we prefer not to take any risk to get worse. And we’ll see in the next hours if it’s something important or not. And then, for sure, Joao Pedro, Liam, Estevao, Jamie Gittens will be good for sure. They are all fantastic players.
“You can see that probably Liam and Joao are a little bit more ahead of the rest. But the reason why is because they were already here in England. Jamie needs to adapt a little bit, Estevao needs to adapt, Hato needs time to adapt. But overall, we are very happy with the road there.”
Chelsea had five different goal scorers in the match, with Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, and Trevor Chalobah finding the back of the net in response to Lucas Paqueta’s sixth-minute goal.
Enzo Maresca Shares Thoughts on “Cole Palmer FC”
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has revealed he is not concerned by comments that refer to his side as Cole Palmer FC. The English forward has been a revelation since he arrived at Stamford Bridge from Manchester City for a reported 47 million euros in the summer of 2023.
Discussing the comments about his side after The Blues battered West Ham United at the London Stadium, the Italian tactician told 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%.
“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.”
Palmer is one of the best players at the club and is a vital part of the Blues’ attacking impetus going forward. The 23-year-old has bagged an impressive 43 goals and 29 assists in 98 games.