Cole Palmer was left out of Chelsea\u2019s squad for the trip to Crystal Palace after a thigh problem that has continued to trouble him this month.<\/p>\n
The forward did not make the side that secured a scratchy Champions League win over Pafos in midweek. Liam Rosenior downplayed that omission as nothing more than precautionary to combat a “minor” issue, and earlier suggested Palmer had “a really good chance” of playing at Selhurst Park. That did not materialise.<\/p>\n
Starting XI: Robert S\u00e1nchez; Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Beno\u00eet Badiashile, Marc Cucurella; Andrey Santos, Mois\u00e9s Caicedo; Est\u00eav\u00e3o, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, Pedro Neto; Jo\u00e3o Pedro.<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Teddy Sharman-Lowe (GK), Josh Acheampong, Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto, Jorrel Hato, Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap, Marc Guiu.<\/p>\n
Rosenior explained that Palmer has been carrying the same problem since last weekend, saying the player suffered from “a little bit of tightness in his thigh” during the win over Brentford. Palmer played the full 90 minutes against the Bees and converted a late penalty, celebrating with a modest gesture.<\/p>\n
Speculation about Palmer\u2019s mood was addressed by Rosenior, who described him as “very, very happy to be here” and sought to dismiss rumours of homesickness. The coach added context on the player’s recent performances: “There was frustration in the Brentford game\u2014not because he isn\u2019t happy here, but because he couldn\u2019t perform at the level he wants to for the club,” and confirmed that Palmer has been “in pain” while playing.<\/p>\n
Palmer was visible in training during the build-up to the Palace match, which suggests the problem is not serious enough to rule him out long term. With a Champions League tie against Napoli scheduled for next Wednesday, there is an expectation within the club that he will be available for that crucial fixture, per BBC Sport\u2019s Nizaar Kinsella.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cole Palmer missed Chelsea’s trip to Crystal Palace with thigh tightness, Rosenior called it ‘minor’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,465,172],"tags":[1305,1304,319],"class_list":["post-6234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-crystal-palace","category-epl","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234","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=6234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}