Cole Palmer is at it again, and again and again. Once the Chelsea star found the net with his first goal of the game against Brighton on Saturday afternoon, few would have expected the floodgates to open in such a manner.
Palmer has surprised many throughout this time at Stamford Bridge but the way in which he scored his first two goals over the weekend was rather unremarkable.
He was in the right place at the right time to find the net from Nicolas Jackson’s cut-back and then stroked home a penalty, as he so often does.
What he did next was scintilating, it was staggering. Palmer racked up two more – one a simply ridiculous free-kick – to score four goals before the half-time whistle had even been blown.
By his standards, this had been a quiet opening to the season on the goalscoring front but he now has six goals in as many matches in the Premier League this term.
It’s safe to say he’s on his way to replicating some Chelsea greats of the past. Like Eden Hazard, he is Chelsea’s new talisman.
Eden Hazard’s time at Chelsea
On his day, the Belgian was one of the best players in the Premier League. His ability to dribble past opponents with ease, his ability to unlock a defence and his ability to find the net was pretty much unmatched at the time of his peak.
Like Palmer, he could dazzle an opposition, leave them in his dust and to wonder what on earth had just happened.
Remember that goal against Arsenal? Of course you do. Hazard has received the ball close the half way line before dancing beyond Francis Coquelin, leaving Laurent Koscielny in his wake and then finding the back of the net.
Off went Hazard, gleeful and smug at what he had just done. Well, Palmer possesses a similar sort of look after he’s just scored. He’s got that cheeky grin, he’s got that famous celebration and he’s becoming every bit as important as that man Hazard was.
During his time at the Bridge, the winger was a marvel, scoring 110 goals and supplying 85 assists in 352 outings for the club. It’s not a bad record, is it?
|
Eden Hazard’s Chelsea career in numbers |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Games |
Goals |
Assists |
|
2012/13 |
62 |
13 |
21 |
|
2013/14 |
49 |
17 |
8 |
|
2014/15 |
52 |
19 |
12 |
|
2015/16 |
43 |
6 |
7 |
|
2016/17 |
43 |
17 |
7 |
|
2017/18 |
52 |
17 |
13 |
|
2018/19 |
52 |
21 |
17 |
|
Stats via Transfermarkt. |
|||
Chelsea may have finally found their new talisman in Palmer but they’ve also now stumbled upon a player who’s argubly rather more similar.
Chalkboard
Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.
Chelsea’s Hazard and Fabregas hybrid
Over the summer, Chelsea did plenty of business. Isn’t that a surprising turn of events? We jest, of course, but one of the most interesting names to arrive was Jadon Sancho.
During his days at Borussia Dortmund, he was “astonishing” in the words of Owen Hargreaves, amassing 53 goals and 67 assists in 158 games. There was a particularly remarkable campaign during 2019/20 where he scored 17 times and supplied an equal number of assists in Bundesliga action.
It was that red-hot season that led him to become one of the most sought-after players in Europe. It was that year and the subsequent term that led Manchester United to pay a whopping £73m for his services. Unfortunately, it never quite happened for him at Old Trafford.
Sancho joined Chelsea this summer on an initial loan deal having found the net on just 12 occasions in United red, and supplying six assists. Those are awful numbers for someone who was so prolific in that third of the pitch during his days in Germany.
Not enjoying the best of relationships with Erik ten Hag, the English winger had to get out and he duly did over the summer. Moving to west London, he is enjoying quite the start to life under Enzo Maresca, emulating a certain Hazard and another former Blue in Cesc Fabregas in the process.
Indeed, over the weekend Sancho became just the third Chelsea player to get an assist in each of his first three Premier League outings, joining Hazard (2012) and Fabregas (2014) in the process.
Interesingly enough, Sancho combines the best of those two players. Like the Belgian, he’s a wonderful dribbler of the ball, ranking in the best 3% of positionally similar players over the last year for succesful take-ons per 90 minutes with 3.76. Like Fabregas, he’s a tremendous creator, ranking among the top 18% of wingers for progressive passes.
Cast our mind back that dazzling 19/20 season and those creative numbers were sky-high, supplying 0.63 assists per 90, enough to rank him in the best 2% of wingers in the Bundesliga that term.
Fabregas ended his Premier League career with a staggering 118 assists in 350 games so the Englishman has some catching up to do. That said, you can clearly see where the parallels lie.
Some may have laughed when Chelsea signed Sancho on deadline day but he is quickly proving the doubters wrong. He already looks like a fine addition to the pack.
