Mauricio Pochettino praised man of the match Cole Palmer in his post-match press conference, identifying the England international as his team’s ‘playmaker’.
Despite a frustrated first-half performance at Stamford Bridge,, where Sheffield United were able to keep Chelsea at bay, even with their dominance of the ball, Pochettino kept faith in his forward-line and instead made tactical changes, which allowed Palmer and Mykhailo Mudryk to play further up the field. Saying that ‘In the second half we changed the position of Palmer and Raheem Sterling, we tried to put Palmer and Mudryk in a better position in front of goal."
Palmer in his prime -
The move paid of and Chelsea scored two goals in the space of seven second half minutes, which saw the home side 2-0 up on their newly promoted opponents, just past the hour mark.
Palmer bagged the first on 54 minutes, and walked away with the Man of the Match award, not for the first time in his short Chelsea career, and was singled out for praise by his manager, who said, ‘For me he’s a playmaker, a player who can link the team. He’s also a player with the capacity to score goals and give assists. The contribution of Cole Palmer from day one has been massive.’
Pochettino is not wrong there, Palmer has had a transformational impact on Chelsea since his arrival, and viceversa, with the West London club offering Palmer an opportunity that could not be matched by Pep Guardiola and Manchester City.
Nkunku Waits -
So confident in Palmer was Pochettino, that he resisted the urge to hand Frenchman Christopher Nkunku his Chelsea debut, who made his first appearance in a match day squad, having been signed for £52 million from RB Leipzig.
Deciding to leave Nkunku on the bench for the course of a game in which his side had 15 shots on target and 78% possession, was a no-brainer for Pochettino, who does not want to rush the striker back into action. Explaining his decision, Pochettino said ‘we didn’t want to take a risk with him and give him more time for his recovery.’
With Nicolas Jackson having grabbed as more goals for Chelsea this season as Kai Havertz did in his last, there is less pressure on Nkunku as the first-choice frontman. He is believed to have been signed as a number nine and is ideally placed to compliment players like Jackson and Palmer, rather than competing with them for positions. It is the likes of Mudryk and Sterling, deemed to be less versatile perhaps, who could suffer from Nkunku's introduction to the first-team the most.
Next Up....Newcastle -
Nkunku’s next opportunity to play for his new team will come quickly, with Chelsea facing a quarter-final against Newcastle United in the EFL Cup next week in which he could feature. And Pochettino goes into the game with confidence, saying he was ‘…confident, even when we lose. I really believe in the players and the club. Now it’s about to use that in the next competition in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup.’
That would be quite the game to make your entrance into English football in, if Nkunku can prove his fitness to his manager, and give the Chelsea supporters a boost. The brief appearances that Nkunku has made in a blue shirt were positive, but unfortunately his pre-season was cut short by injury, and that is what is down to the long wait for his competitive debut for Chelsea.
