Cole Palmer looks back to his best, which is brilliant news for Chelsea. After coming off the bench and scoring against Brentford at the weekend, he added to his tally with an even better goal against Bayern Munich. And it had looked like he had got himself a brace late in the game, only for VAR to intervene, as he was adjudged to be fractionally offside.
Ultimately, Palmer's performance went in vain as Chelsea lost the game 3-1. Unfortunately, all three goals that they conceded could have been prevented.
The drop ball that led to the first one for Bayern Munich has caused a ton of controversy. The second one was a soft penalty, which could or could not have been given. And the third was the worst of the lot, giving the ball away in such a risky position to a player like Harry Kane.
The overall performance perhaps wanted a bit more but when you make such mistakes at this level, you cannot expect to win against teams like Bayern Munich. That is just the reality of the case. The biggest worry coming out of the game though would have been the fitness of Palmer, who seemed to be clutching his inner leg late on in the game. The Englishman has been dealing with groing issues at the start of the season and the last thing Chelsea need right now is for him to be injured again.
Chelsea boss drops Cole Palmer update after new injury worry
Fortunately, there seems to be a bit of a positive update on the situation of Palmer. As reported by The Standard, Enzo Maresca said when asked about a fitness update on the Englishman:
"Cole, I think, is okay. He said he was okay."
Chelsea have a lot of good players, but Palmer is the difference maker and a big match player. That became very clear in the game against Bayern Munich.
Of course, one could point towards the lack of activity in the summer despite injuries as a reason behind Chelsea's defence as well. It might sound harsh but a centre-back pairing of Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah is never going to work against the top teams at this level. When Levi Colwill got injured, the Blues should have gone out and signed a capable replacement. They did not, and here we are. This transfer policy has brought us some success for sure but at the same time, the Blues hierarchy need to learn how to adjust to situations.