It is fair to say that former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte was impressed with Cole Palmer’s latest Chelsea performance.
Anyone who watched him play for Chelsea against Everton yesterday had to be.
Cole Palmer scored a second consecutive hat-trick at Stamford Bridge after bagging four goals in his side’s 6-0 triumph over Sean Dyche’s men.
It took him to 20 goals in the Premier League this season, the same amount Erling Haaland has managed.
It was such a good performance that Marc Cucurella literally bowed his head as he went to go shake Palmer’s hand.
Cole Palmer leaves Aymeric Laporte almost speechless
It looks like Laporte almost cannot believe what Palmer is doing right now.
No one probably can, with the 21-year-old managing 36 goal contributions in 38 appearances for Chelsea.
What makes this so crazy is the fact that this is Palmer’s first season as a regular starter. At City, he was mostly on the periphery.
Watching him during Chelsea’s 6-0 hammering of Everton, Laporte took to X to simply say, “Wow kid”.
Dele Alli makes excellent point about Cole Palmer
Palmer’s second goal against Everton was a simple header, but Dele Alli thought it showed that the former City man has a real striker’s instinct.
Honestly, the way Palmer has finished some of his chances this term, the England international really has looked like a centre-forward.
He is posting the kind of numbers they do, though the Chelsea man has scored a lot of penalties.
Any striker in the world, though, will tell you that they all count. And the fact that Palmer is yet to miss any that he has taken evidently shows that he has a skill, a technique, being fully utilised.
This has to be one of the best individual seasons from a Chelsea player in the Premier League era.