Enzo Maresca confirmed Cole Palmer will be fit and available for Chelsea\u2019s crucial meeting with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The manager said Palmer could even start after an extended absence that left the squad adapting its attacking patterns.<\/p>\n
Palmer\u2019s campaign has been disrupted by a groin problem that kept him out for the first four months of the season, and a subsequent toe fracture suffered at home. \u201cEveryone is happy,\u201d the Chelsea boss beamed, \u201cthe teammates are happy, we are all happy and the most important thing is Cole is happy because a footballer wants to play games and make the sessions every day.\u201d It has been 71 days since Palmer\u2019s last appearance.<\/p>\n
Maresca\u2019s early time in charge showed how dependent the side could be on Palmer before the coach began to develop alternative routes to goal during the playmaker\u2019s lengthy absences. That work now sits alongside the prospect of Palmer\u2019s return as Maresca must decide how to fit him into a forward line that has found other solutions.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e3o Pedro has looked most comfortable in the No. 10 role that Palmer once occupied, while on the right the 18-year-old Est\u00eav\u00e3o has emerged as a standout performer. The Brazilian impressed in midweek, notably outshining Barcelona\u2019s Lamine Yamal in that fixture, and is pushing for regular inclusion.<\/p>\n
Palmer\u2019s former coach at the Manchester City youth teams praised him warmly. \u201cHe is our best player,\u201d Palmer\u2019s former coach at the Manchester City youth teams gushed. \u201cHe has done fantastic in the past and no doubt he is going to do very good for this club in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca stressed the need for measured decisions when selecting young talent and hinted at the possibility of pairing the two attackers. \u201cThey can play together, but depends on the game plan,\u201d Maresca warned this week. \u201cFor sure they are exciting. Fans excited. We also are excited. We need always balance between two.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contest between the two teams at the top of the Premier League table now presents Maresca with a choice: reintegrate his talisman or preserve the balance that developed during Palmer\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca confirms Cole Palmer is fit to face Arsenal at Stamford Bridge; selection dilemmas remain. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1089,319,1019],"class_list":["post-4745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-cole-palmer","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}