Cole Palmer’s strange moment in Aston Villa defeat sums up Chelsea’s struggles

Cole Palmer spurned a great chance in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa on Saturday – and his reaction showed his frustration during a rare dry spell for the England star

Never mind his goal celebration, Cole Palmer has gone from red-hot to ice cold.

It’s six games and counting since the sublime playmaker last entered his name onto the scoresheet. That isn’t lengthy for most players. But then Palmer isn’t just any player.

His strike-rate of one-in-two is up there with the best but he cut a frustrated figure as Chelsea chased victory against Aston Villa on Saturday.

The England international fluffed his lines, slipping at a crucial moment with the goal at his mercy and allowing Ezri Konsa to clear. Palmer stayed on the ground as Villa broke upfield. It was a strange reaction.

But boss Enzo Maresca was always going to cut him some slack. “Cole is, I’ve said many times, a top player,” he said. “He belongs to that category. Because they are top, they want always to try and win games, always try to be the best.

“He knows in that moment, he is not happy with the chance he missed but on one side, we can be almost happy with his reaction because that means he feels bad about the chance he missed.

“It was around 75 or 80 minutes, that chance would’ve changed completely the game. For me, it is quite similar to Filip [Jorgensen].”

Back-to-back home fixtures against relegation-threatened Southampton and Ipswich Town this week gives Maresca’s men the opportunity to get themselves back on track.

Maresca added: “In terms of results, we are in a bad moment. But we are still there. The performance was much better than the one against Brighton. We have 12 games to go. I have the feeling that if we win one, we’ll kick on.”

“The reason why I said before that it is the toughest defeat of the season is because today, again, our team was there. You can recognise: off the ball, aggressive, on the ball, tried to play and create chances.

“Without a No.9 in the last two games, we struggled to create chances. Today, we tried Pedro [Neto] during the week, it worked very well, attacking in behind and creating chances, scored a goal but it is a moment where we probably are a bit unlucky. We need a win and try to go again.”

Maresca refused to throw his backing behind goalkeeper Jorgensen, who allowed Marco Asensio’s tame effort underneath his body to give Villa the winner in the 89th minute. Asked if he would start against Southampton, he replied: “I don’t know. In this moment, it is not today’s mistake that I am going to change my mind about Filip in this moment. We will see.”

Jorgensen has ousted Robert Sanchez from the starting line-up after some high-profile gaffes from the Spaniard, but his own place is now under threat.

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