Cole Palmer struggled to contain his fury after being substituted in the opening 20 minutes during Chelsea’s game against Manchester United. It was a nightmare start for the Blues, who were reduced in numbers in the early exchanges. Robert Sanchez was shown a straight red card for a reckless foul on United forward Bryan Mbeumo, leaving Chelsea with a mountain to climb.
Enzo Maresca responded by making two changes, with Filip Jorgensen coming on to fill in between the sticks. Pedro Neto and Estevao Willian were hooked as the Chelsea boss went into damage limitation mode. United then opened the scoring through Bruno Fernandes, who was judged to have been onside following a lengthy VAR review.
Palmer was then substituted after just 20 minutes, with Andrey Santos coming off the bench to replace him. The former looked furious as he trudged off the pitch and appeared to throw something on the ground in a moment of rage.
The playmaker grabbed his jacket and walked straight down the tunnel, rather than sitting on the bench with his Chelsea team-mates.
The change was apparently made due to an injury, with Palmer pointing to his groin as he made his way off the pitch. He later returned to the bench with an ice pack, which he was holding over the affected area.
Sky Sports co-commentator Alan Smith said: “If you want to get back into this game, then Cole Palmer is the man to do it. But whether he is carrying a knock is another matter.”
It came after Maresca heaped praise on Palmer ahead of the game at Old Trafford, telling Sky Sports: “We need him, no doubt, with Cole we are a better team.
“But knowing that Cole is not going to be available for the whole season, we need to find solutions and find ways to win games like we did against West Ham and Fulham.
“No doubt, we need Cole. He’s growing a lot, especially in terms of personality. I’m not saying he is one of the leaders, but he’s growing in that aspect.”
In his press conference on Friday, the Chelsea manager said: “Yes, Cole is okay. We have a training session now where we will look at the players.
“We flew back yesterday [from Munich] so we need to assess some of the guys before we make a decision for the weekend.
“We haven’t had a session since the game on Wednesday, we have some doubts but we will see after today’s training session.”
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