England midfielder is ‘different’ to Chelsea team-mates – Maresca

Cole Palmer’s Panenka penalty in Chelsea’s thrilling win at Tottenham showed the “freedom” the England midfielder shares with “many top players”, Blues manager Enzo Maresca has said as his top scorer aims to add to his 11 top-flight goals this season.

Prolific Palmer’s impudent strike was his second penalty after the break in his side’s 4-3 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, recovering from 2-0 behind after 11 minutes to go second before this weekend’s fixtures.

“Cole is a different one to the rest but we have many good players where the head coach – in this case, me – would feel happy and proud to work with them,” said Maresca, whose team are two points clear of Arsenal and four behind leaders Liverpool, having played a game more than the Reds.

“Many top players have that [composure at key moments] – they look like they almost don’t care, but it’s just their way and being that way gives them more freedom.

“They can relax, and you can see Cole is the same way. Cole was this way five years ago and he’s still the same. You don’t need to waste energy to convince him to be a different way.”

Together. pic.twitter.com/W28J0WmkU0

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 10, 2024

Cole Palmer goals

Palmer’s additional six assists in 15 Premier League games put his direct goal involvements tally this season only behind Mohamed Salah, who has produced 13 goals and set up eight in 14 matches for Liverpool.

None of Palmer’s 22 Premier League goals last season came across the 180 minutes he played against Brentford, who Chelsea host on Sunday (7pm GMT) – although he crossed for Axel Disasi’s 83rd-minute equaliser in their 2-2 draw away to the Bees on March 2.

“He behaves exactly as he needs, with a focus on football and the important things,” added Maresca. “The most important thing is he loves football.

📸#CFC | #TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/yngCfaVlMM

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 9, 2024

“He is always one of the first out for the session, starts to play with the ball and you can see in that moment who really loves football and those who just play football.

“He is only 22 and there are many things he can improve… at the moment, everyone is marking him man-to-man.”

Palmer’s omission from Chelsea’s Conference League squad meant he was not part of their 3-1 win at Kazakh club Astana on Thursday, when Marc Guiu and Renato Veiga scored either side of Aleksandr Marochkin’s own-goal to put the visitors 3-0 up after 39 minutes.

Chelsea vs Brentford

Chelsea have lost three and drawn two of their last five meetings with Brentford, last beating them at home in the league in 1946.

Each of those defeats came at Stamford Bridge, Thomas Frank’s side following up a 4-1 thrashing in April 2022 with successive 2-0 wins.