Football

COLE PALMER has been the shining light in a Chelsea season which has peered into the edge of darkness too often.But now, for the first time since his arrival from Manchester City, Palmer is struggling.Cole Palmer has struggled to meet expectations at times this seasonCredit: GettyThe midfielder is currently experiencing a slump in formCredit: APAnd how he and the Blues find a way out of Palmer’s slump may determine whether they are playing Champions League football next season – or face a THIRD straight season out of Europe’s elite.The Blues’ talisman is undeniably one of the best players in the Premier League.Not just in the Prem either – just recall his impressive cameos for England in Euro 2024, including that stunning equaliser in the Final defeat to Spain.But from being the stand-out English performer of the season, with goals and assists raining in, Palmer is in the middle of a barren run.Palmer, 22, has 14 goals and six assists to his name in the top flight this term, having scored 22 and laid on 11 more last season.Yet since the turn of the year, Palmer has lost form, without a single direct goal contribution in his last NINE games.Few players ever go through their career without periods in the doldrums and Palmer has already shown enough to believe this is a temporary downturn.But SunSport has looked at how the Blues can get Ice Cold Cole back to his best, and fast.Join SUN CLUB for the Chelsea Files every Tuesday plusin-depth coverage and exclusives from Stamford BridgeBattling illness and injury Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was honest – arguably too honest – about how Palmer was struggling with stomach issues and diarrhoea ahead of the match with Leicester. Nonetheless he played in that game, and his barren run continued, his run of 12 successive converted penalties coming to an abrupt end as Mads Hermansen plunged to his left to turn the spot-kick aside. ‘Reminded me of Gerrard at Liverpool’ – Cole Palmer told he needs to LEAVE Chelsea and has outgrown the club alreadyPalmer then missed the defeat at Arsenal – which left Chelsea in fourth and part of the group of seven clubs scrapping for Champions League football – and was pulled out of Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad.The news that Palmer requires a second scan on the unspecified injury will be a massive concern for Chelsea fans – to add to their recent woes.Has he been ‘figured out’?Some fans are suspecting that Cole Palmer has been ‘figured out’ by Premier League opposition, but to me, that seems unlikely. Palmer is an enigmatic, maverick of the League, who has shone at Chelsea in the number 10 position and on the right hand side since he joined. Some fans have claimed that Palmer has been ‘figured out’Credit: GettyEven throughout his slump, he still looks a class above most players on the pitch, he just hasn’t had the ability to convert that into numbers. That’s not to say compared to last season teams aren’t making it harder for him, because that is definitely true.Everyone who has watched Chelsea in the past year knows that he is their main goal threat, especially in the absence of Nicolas Jackson – a factor that must be taken into serious account.What that means is he’s being marked tighter, doubled up on and tackled a bit harder.Chelsea fans of an older vintage will see parallels of how Eden Hazard was targeted by opponents during his time at Stamford Bridge – and how the Belgian found his own way to combat that treatment.And like Hazard, Palmer will be able to cope with the need to deal with such rough-house defending by evolving his own game.Palmer has already shown he can do so this season. That, though, was when his team-mates were also pulling their weight to give him the room to play. And at the moment, they’re not.Missing Nico and Noni Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have both come under heavy criticism and scrutiny since joining Chelsea, which is perhaps down to the lofty standards of the fans rather than the players’ individual ability. One thing is for sure, that since the pair have been on the treatment table and not the pitch, the team has suffered. And, unsurprisingly, Palmer has too.It has been well documented the great relationship Cole has with these two in particular, and even in his face on the pitch you can see he’s not enjoying himself as much without them around. But it’s not only about relationships, Jackson is still Chelsea’s second highest Premier League scorer and while his finishing is questionable at times, his creative effort and link-up with Palmer cannot be underestimated. Nicolas Jackson’s absence has affected PalmerCredit: GettyPalmer is also missing Noni MaduekeCredit: GettyHe makes runs into the channels, often moving out to the left and allowing Palmer to take up space in the middle, but also presents a threat in the box from the England man’s in-swinging crosses – something which Chelsea massively lack at the moment. Unless Marc Cucurella has stormed in from deep, that is…It’s a similar story with Noni Madueke. While he has often been criticised for appearing selfish, actually his selfishness has been under-appreciated.His high shot volume has led to more goals than most in Blue this season, with his ability to create space on the right and pose a goal threat creating more space for Palmer to get free and work his magic.With those two out, Chelsea have lacked chemistry in attack. More critically, as far as Palmer is concerned, it has left him as the main, indeed, sometimes ONLY threat – and therefore much easier to defend against than three. While Christopher Nkunku and Pedro Neto are not bad players, neither appears the natural fit for Chelsea.Nkunku, whose first term was significantly blighted by injuries, is making his goal-laden final two years at Leipzig look like the blip, rather than the norm. The Frenchman has scored just six Prem goals across two seasons.Neto, bought with an injury cloud hanging over him, is a winger, pure and simple. Asking him to play up front, as Maresca has done recently, is putting a square peg in a round hole. It cannot fit. Is he trying TOO hard?At the crux of this issue, is what you see visibly on the pitch – a player who is unable to be his best because of a combination of factors, many of them outside his control.Watching Palmer, not just his performances but his body language, and you see a player who looks as if he’s almost trying too hard to score.The 22-year-old sometimes looks like he is trying too hard during gamesCredit: ReutersPalmer clearly shows with his touches, quick feet and passing that he is one of the better players on the pitch – and the stats showed that in February he was the most creative player in EUROPE, despite not registering an assist in the previous two months.This shows the extent to which he is being let down somewhat by his teammates in terms of goals. Against Southampton and Leicester in particular he was doing all the work to get into a good position.But when it came to pulling the trigger he appeared to be overthinking things – when the beauty of his game before was that it seemed so natural, effortless and almost an afterthought. How will it work out? More than likely Palmer just needs one bit of fortune and we will see the ice cold menace turned Premier League sweetheart back at his best.The returns of Jackson and Madueke would almost certainly give Palmer a boost too, with Chelsea being a more threatening side overall when they’re in it – this should ease the creative burden on Cole and allow him to be a bit more natural and instinctive in his play. The international break will provide him with a rest, and hopefully when the Premier League returns we’ll see ‘Cold’ Palmer prove that while form is temporary, class is permanent. Chelsea ratings vs ArsenalCHELSEA missed the chance to pull clear in the race for Champions League football as they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal.Mikel Merino scored the only goal of the game as the Blues produced a limp performance at the Emirates.They were without several key men including Cole Palmer.And they struggled to create chances against Arsenal with a threadbare subs bench to boot.But who was Chelsea’s best player in North London?And which players will want to forget about their performance as soon as possible?See SunSport’s Andy Dillon’s verdict on the Chelsea players here More