Why Enzo Maresca was RIGHT to drop Cole Palmer vs Brentford

From a bench warmer at Manchester City to a world-renowned superstar, Cole Palmer has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past two seasons.

The 22-year-old is a fully fledged England international, who scored in his nation’s European Championship final defeat last summer, while he is the 10th most valuable player in world football, as per FootballTransfers’ Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) model.

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So, when he was excluded from Chelsea’s line-up for their Premier League clash against Brentford, eyebrows were most certainly raised.

Enzo Maresca was heavily criticised by Blues fans for his team selection, with Palmer joined by Nicolas Jackson, Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill and Pedro Neto on the bench, and his gamble didn’t pay off as Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw in a major blow to their hopes of securing Champions League qualification.

However, while Maresca was perhaps wrong to drop five of his key starters, resting Palmer may not have been the worst idea.

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Why Cole Palmer should be rested by Chelsea

Before travelling to Brentford, Palmer had started every Premier League match when fully fit and available since December 2023 – a run of 51 matches. During that time, Palmer played 80 minutes or more on 46 occasions.

Of course, he was excluded from Chelsea’s Europa Conference League squad for the league phase, in order to rest him, but Palmer has virtually been an ever-present for 18 months.

His recent hamstring injury therefore wasn’t a real surprise given the number of minutes he has played since joining Chelsea, and ensuring Palmer remains fully fit should be one of Maresca’s priorities.

The Blues were extremely poor in Palmer’s absence versus Arsenal before the March international break, while the Englishman was lacklustre in the weeks leading up to his injury, with a limited influence on matches, which could be down to being overworked over the past year-and-a-half.

Maresca’s team selection against Brentford backfired massively and it’s a lesson the Italian will no doubt learn from. However, resting Palmer on his own isn’t necessarily a bad idea from time to time, especially given Chelsea had less than 72 hours of rest before facing Thomas Frank’s side.

Maresca must, of course, pick the right moment to drop the 22-year-old, but he is crucial to the way Chelsea play and a long-term injury, similar to the one that the overworked Bukayo Saka suffered in December, could be on the cards if his minutes aren’t managed.

Chelsea’s fortunes also shouldn’t lie solely at Palmer’s feet and it’s a damning indictment that despite €1.4 billion being spent on new signings under Clearlake Capital, the Blues are a fairly incompetent attacking side when the England star is missing.

That fact must change if they want to regularly compete for major honours over the next few years, and Maresca needs to find an adequate solution to cope without Palmer in the future.