Nizaar Kinsella’s piece in the Evening Standard today is all about Cole Palmer and how he’s been so good for Chelsea despite regularly getting shunted around the attack to help out his teammates and to cover for injuries.
It’s a point we’ve made a few times in the last week, since we saw Nicolas Jackson look so effective on the wing against Aston Villa in the FA Cup replay. Our three best players in attack (Jackson, Palmer and Christopher Nkunku) all look better when not used as the striker.
One of them has to be sacrificed, and that has regularly been Palmer so far. But if the club secure a top number 9, they can then use all of their top players in their most dangerous roles. For now, they will have to mend and make do, but as Kinsella writes, “Chelsea know they have a problem and are targeting a high profile striker in the summer.”
We’ve heard that one before…
