Cole Palmer scored four goals in Chelsea's 4-2 win over Brighton at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League.
The first half was disaster class in defending, as both sides were plagued with mistakes at the back. Robert Sanchez was the first offender as he ran into no man’s land to clear the ball, unfortunately for the Spaniard, Brighton’s Georginio Rutter beat him and headered the ball into the back of the net in the seventh minute. It was the Frenchman’s first goal in Brighton colours.
Adam Webster was the second offender in the 21st minute as he attempted to play the ball back to his keeper only to under-hit the pass, allowing Nicolas Jackson to swoop in and pass the ball to Palmer for a tap-in.
The Blues completed their comeback in the 28th minute after Jadon Sancho went down in Brighton’s box to win a penalty. As expected, Palmer cooly dispatched the penalty in the bottom left-hand corner for his second of the afternoon.
Fabian Hurzeler’s side had another mix-up at the back that caused Pervis Estupinan to give away a free kick 25 yards out. Palmer accepted the challenge of the free kick and curled the ball into an almost inch-perfect position to beat Bart Verbruggen and solidify another first-half hattrick.
Enzo Maresca’s team was not off the hook yet after Sanchez made another mistake, a pass meant for Moises Caicedo fell to the feet of Carlos Baleba who calmly slotted it past Sanchez to make it 3-2 in the 34th minute.
The sixth and final goal of the game came courtesy of another individual error. Verbruggen’s loose pass fell to Sancho, who picked out a precise pass into the path of Palmer and stroked the ball first time into the bottom left corner in the 41st minute. The 22-year-old broke a Premier League record, being the first player in Premier League history to score four goals in the first half of a match.
Chelsea fans have known how good of a player Cole Palmer is for a while however games like this show how truly talented this player is. On top of the goals, Palmer also had three big chances created and was incredibly unlucky to not walk away from this game with an assist. At 22 years old to put in these types of performances that displayed another level of footballing maturity speaks to the potential of this player. I believe he will be good enough to win the Ballon d’Or one day and he already has the numbers to back these statements up.
Besides Palmer, Maresca deserved credit for the result today. In the first half, it was a basketball game with an unsustainable tempo. Ultimately this suited Chelsea due to Brighton’s high line, it made the game unpredictable and left Chelsea vulnerable at times. In the second half, Maresca addressed these issues and slowed the game's tempo to a level which suited his side. Chances were still created and should have been scored however, Brighton was less threatening in the second and allowed Chelsea to go in cruise control for the remainder of the game.
The Blues’ victory has placed them fourth in the table with only two points separating them from first place. Six games into the Premier League season, Maresca has considerably increased confidence among fans with multiple great team performances alongside a recognisable philosophy that was missing under Mauricio Pochettino. There are still flaws in this team that were highlighted against Brighton, however, for the first time since the new ownership came in, Chelsea fans can feel confident in their team to play well and win games.
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