Cole Palmer must return to form to help Chelsea's Champions League bid - or risk his World Cup place

Cole Palmer ambling round the pitch with minimal impact at Stamford Bridge in last weekend’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City was a familiar enough sight this season for Chelsea fans.

In the eyes of his managers for club and country, though, it was an increasingly rare one.

Both Liam Rosenior and the England head coach Thomas Tuchel believe Palmer is beginning, gradually, to get back to the player he was for the first 18 months of his time at the club.

An injury-plagued season has robbed him of his top form but also led some to lamentably predict he may never climb back to those previous heights.

He has just three assists and five non-penalty goals from 29 appearances for Chelsea and England combined this season, a far cry from the numbers he was previously posting before the start of this campaign.

Tuchel has so many options in the No10 position that Palmer is hoping to hold down at the World Cup this summer.

Jude Bellingham, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze and Phil Foden are all battling Palmer and each other for that coveted position, with Morgan Gibbs-White also in and around the conversation but likeliest to miss out on the squad.

Deciding big games is pivotal for ultimately coming out on top.

There are “no guarantees” that Palmer makes the squad, Tuchel said last month, yet he insists he has seen “positive data” that suggests Palmer is returning to his best.

“I saw him live against Arsenal [in the Premier League on March 1 and, for the first time in a long time, I had the feeling his stride was back to the original lengths,” Tuchel explained.

“Before, I felt he was not free and the stride was not long enough, the acceleration was not there and the movement was not free.

“I got the feedback from him and the feedback from Chelsea was that he [is feeling] much, much better.

Before, we saw the physical output matched the impression we had that [he] was lacking something, but he is back to full confidence and we see it in training.”
Now to translate it to the pitch.

Tuchel and Rosenior would be delighted if the visit of Michael Carrick’s United, a club he has scored four times against in six appearances, is the moment it all clicks into place for the 23-year-old.

“In terms of creation in the last game against what is a fantastic team in Manchester City, Cole probably wasn’t at the level he wanted to be at, in possession,” Rosenior said this week.

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“But, in saying that, watching him, his energy, his intensity of how he pressed and ran for the team and defended, they are all really, really good signs in terms of his fitness.

And if he stays in that place, his quality will take over and he’ll be massive for us between now and the end of the season.”
The goals and assists will come.

Palmer and Rosenior are “both very confident” of that, the latter said.

“Every player in world football goes through three-, four-game spells where it doesn’t quite happen, or the last pass or the last shot.

But the best players in the world stay consistent in their process and what they do, and if Cole does that, the rest will take care of itself.”