Cole Palmer must step up for Chelsea or risk losing World Cup place to Nottingham Forest’s in-form Morgan Gibbs-White
Palmer and Gibbs-White will face off against each other at Stamford Bridge in polar opposite form; hampered by injuries, the former is still scratching around for the kind of world-class impactfulness we all know he is capable of, while the latter is on fire as his goals propel Forest towards Premier League safety.
Palmer’s struggles this season have been well-documented. Mainly the result of the debilitating chronic groin injury, pubalgia, that left him unable to make his trademark explosive movements and run with his usual cadence, even affecting his ability to shoot properly, Chelsea’s talisman has often looked a shadow of his former self this season. Many of his performances have been bereft of that game-changing impact that saw him soar to superstardom in his first two years with the club as he regularly goes missing.
With hindsight, he was almost certainly overused by former head coach Enzo Maresca in the first half of the campaign when he really should have been spending an extended period on the sidelines – undoubtedly a reflection of his importance to the Blues’ cause, and there is little question that their overall performances have suffered as a result, given they find themselves in the midst of a dogfight for European qualification.
It looked as though he might be back to something like his best when he netted a hat-trick against Wolves in February, but along with so many of his team-mates he seemed to suffer a crisis of confidence in the ensuing weeks amid the dire run of form that led to Liam Rosenior’s sacking. It’s worth noting that, despite missing a significant chunk of the campaign, he has still hit double figures for goals across all competitions, including nine in the Premier League (albeit that includes five penalties) where he has played the equivalent of just 17 matches (1,606 minutes).
