Cole Palmer's Humble Triggers Chelsea's Success

Cole Palmer became one of Chelsea's success actors as a challenger for the 2024/2025 Premier League title (Instagram/@chelseafc).

JAKARTA - Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said that Cole Palmer's upgrade to one of the biggest stars in the Premier League did not change that.

The 22-year-old player remains grounded despite playing a key role at Chelsea. Most recently, Palmer became the Blues' Blues victory over Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 on Sunday, December 8, 2024, with a brace from the penalty spot.

For Maresca, Palmer is not new. The two of them were together when the Italian coach worked for the U-23 team at Manchester City.

He also praised the mentality of the England national team player after recording his 50th goal involvement of the Premier League 48 matches.

Only Erling Haaland at Manchester City (39), Andy Cole for Newcastle (43), and Mohamed Salah for Liverpool (46) have ever reached that number in fewer appearances.

"I got to know Cole from four or five years ago. The best of him was four, five years ago, when he was with me."

"He played in a monotonous style and now after two years, scored 20-30 goals."

"Everyone thinks of him as one (of the best), but he is still the same person."

"He loves football very much, is humble, doesn't do strange things. This is the best thing for Cole and the young players."

"The problem is, right now young players if they play well in one game, they will think they are (the best)."

"They will lose balance. However, Cole is always the same, unchanged, and we are very happy with him," said Maresca.

Cole Palmer is one of the pillars of Enzo Maresca who predicts Chelsea will dominate the Premier League in the next few seasons.

Maresca's prediction was not arbitrary. He saw that the Chelsea youth squad, who were on average 22 years old, would be a star in the future.

Now alone, the Blues are able to sing at the top of the 2024/2025 Premier League standings perched in second place.

The score has never been reached by Chelsea in the last two seasons where they finished sixth (2023/2024) and 12th (2022/2023).

Maresca was clearly surprised by the performance of her young students. In fact, he was surprised by Cole Palmer's mentality when he took a penalty kick against Tottenham, something he didn't see during training.

Palmer's second penalty kick was Panenka and means he now has the best conversion ratio in Premier League history, surpassing Yaya Toure who scored all 12 of his penalties to date.

"Maybe since we started (working with the team), I haven't seen Cole take a penalty kick (in training)."

"Cole is included in a group that is not an ordinary player. They are top players and do things that ordinary players do."

"We said how can he do that? He scored a goal because he was top. Kmai can expect this from Cole," said Maresca again.

Maresca did not get the wrong idea to pile up expectations for Cole Palmer. He brought more motivation to the team to continue to grow and continue to ground as praise flows.

It was this humility and ambition to perform better every match that made Chelsea now a serious challenger in the Premier League.

Just look at the mentality of the Blues when they trailed 0-2 from Tottenham. They didn't give up, immediately looked crazy by turning things around 4-2.