For an attacking player, being compared to legendary Premier League forwards Dennis Bergkamp and Robin van Persie is not a bad thing at all.
Chelsea striker Cole Palmer was likened to both after his history-making performance in Saturday’s 4-2 win against Brighton at Stamford Bridge.
The 22-year-old got all four goals, scoring them in the first half of the game – the first time that has ever been done in the Premier League.
Palmer also had one goal disallowed and hit the woodwork as Brighton could not cope with him.
“He has got a bit of finesse, Bergkamp, Van Persie about him, and they weren’t bad at all,” former England and Arsenal forward Theo Walcott said after the game.
Bergkamp is a Premier League Hall of Famer – an Arsenal great who scored 87 goals and added 94 assists in 315 league games for the Gunners, winning three top-flight titles in 11 seasons.
His fellow Dutchman Van Persie starred for Arsenal in an eight-year stint before winning the 2012-13 Premier League with Manchester United.
Walcott explained he had been “speechless” while witnessing Palmer’s performance.
“He has grown into his own at Chelsea and he is the main man,” said Walcott. “You can’t leave him out of any team, and I am talking about England too.
“He is so gifted, he will have that awe around him so that players are afraid of him. If he continues like this, he going to be a legend of the Premier League.”
Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards told BBC Match of the Day: “When he scored 22 goals last season, we asked: Could he do it again? We don’t talk about his movement enough, the timing of his runs are brilliant. Everything he does is effortless in the way he does it.
“In terms of brains of footballers, he is so ahead of the game. An absolute joy to watch. He has everything. When you become the main man, you are marked by two people, but he still delivers.”
Former England striker Gary Lineker, Match of the Day’s presenter, added: “Every time I see him, he takes my breath away. An extraordinary footballer.
“Of all the talented players England have got, he might be the best of the lot.”
The Blues player himself though, had his eyes on more.
Palmer told BBC Radio 5 Live: “When I missed the first chance I was upset, but the way they played and how high the line was, we knew we would get more chances. I should have had five or six.
“I just try and play every game the way I can and hopefully produce performances like that.
“[Bergkamp] is a legend of the Premier League but I didn’t really watch him. He is a top player but thank you Theo [Walcott].”
The record-breaking Palmer statistics
The statistics for Palmer are hugely impressive.
As well as becoming the first player in Premier League history to score four goals in the first half of a game, he:
- scored the fastest ever hat-trick by a Chelsea player in the Premier League with three goals in nine minutes and 48 seconds.
- scored all four of his goals in a 19 minute and 57 second first-half spell, with only Jermain Defoe scoring four goals faster in the Premier League, for Tottenham against Wigan in 2009.
- is now on three Premier League hat-tricks since joining last season. That is the joint-most for Chelsea, alongside Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Frank Lampard.
- has scored all 10 of his first 10 penalties for Chelsea, the longest such run for the club since Hasselbaink managed 12 from 12 without missing a single one, and only Yaya Toure with 11 out of his first 11 for Manchester City has scored more in a row after joining a club.
- has been directly involved in 43 goals (28 goals, 15 assists) in the Premier League, more than any other player since the start of 2023-24.
- is the ninth player to score four goals in two or more Premier League games, after Frank Lampard, Sergio Aguero, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dimitar Berbatov, Yakubu, Andy Cole, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler.
‘Ambitious and hungry’ Palmer ‘best in Premier League’
Chelsea have signed a large number of players in recent times. Arguably their best bit of business was bringing in Palmer from Manchester City for £42.5m last summer.
He scored 22 Premier League goals in his first season at Stamford Bridge and has six already this term. No wonder, then, that Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was delighted to be reunited with him.
The Italian, who was appointed in the summer, previously worked with Palmer when he was a coach at Manchester City.
Maresca said: “What he was as a boy is exactly what he was three or four years ago. Goals, assists, best player of the Premier League – this doesn’t change the way he is. He’s a humble guy and for me it’s the most important thing.”
The Chelsea boss added: “He scored four but he also could have scored two or three more.
“It’s important he stays hungry and ambitious.”
There is certainly no doubting Palmer’s hunger and after the win against Brighton he told Match of the Day: “I should have had five or six!
“When I missed the first chance I was upset, but with the way they played and their high line I felt we’d get more chances.
“I try and play every game the best I can.”
Both teams chaotic but Chelsea win on firepower
This was a game of cat and mouse, high risk and high rewards from two managers wedded to their tactical approach.
Maresca’s team may have edged it tactically but the real difference maker was Palmer and his ruthless finishing.
The Italian manager said, after mistakes from Levi Colwill and Robert Sanchez led to goals after intelligent Brighton pressing, that his team didn’t have it all their own way.
“Probably we struggled in some moments of the game, but I think this kind of game the team needed also to learn,” Maresca said.
“I prefer to have more possession. But we struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game, we conceded possession because they surprised us a bit tactically, but overall we were quite good.”
In another remarkable summer at Stamford Bridge in which £200m was spent and Raheem Sterling and Conor Gallagher left, perhaps the eyebrow-raising nine-year contracts handed to Palmer and Jackson may prove to be shrewd moves.
The early weeks of the season were full of talk of chaos behind the scenes, power struggles and stockpiling, but for all the talk of having too many players, Chelsea have started to look settled. Maresca has made nine changes to his starting XIs in the league this season, four fewer than Manchester City and Newcastle and one fewer than Brighton.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler’s approach is one that is riskier than perhaps even Chelsea’s – sticking to a very high defensive line. They camped on the halfway line at Stamford Bridge, regardless of whether Chelsea or they had the ball.
All four goals that Brighton shipped on Saturday, and the four conceded before, were similar as teams exploited that style of defending, which the German admits may force a change of approach.
Hurzeler said: “They had one amazing player [Palmer] that punished every mistake we did. We should learn about it. We can’t win if we make these easy mistakes, especially in the first half. We have to analyse it, improve and adapt if necessary.”