Enzo Maresca ignores the best part about Cole Palmer return – one of these two flops can be dropped | OneFootball

We’re looking over the wreckage of last night’s incredibly frustrating defeat to Leeds United.

If you want to find one positive from it all, you’d think of the return of Cole Palmer. He played more than half an hour, and while all he really was able to do was miss a notable chance to equalise, it was so nice to see him out there running around.

We don’t know whether he will be fit enough to start against Bournemouth at the weekend, but he will certainly have picked up enough minutes to play 45 there. Enzo Maresca pointed to Palmer’s return as one of the few positives from a grim night at Elland Road.

Palmer return the “only good news” says Maresca

Enzo Maresca speaking in his post-match press conference against Leeds.

“Probably it’s the only good news of the night. I’m happy for him, he’s back, now he needs to build a little bit the physical condition and he will be important for us, for sure.

“He’s getting better, but he needs to play minutes. Last night he had more-or-less half-an-hour, hopefully we can give him more in the next game.”

Palmer’s return to the attack should give them a new injection of quality, and most importantly means that either Joao Pedro or Liam Delap can be dropped. Both are out of form and struggling to find their place. Hopefully replacing one with Palmer will help the other find their mojo.

In other news…

The Athletic have pointed out that, for all of this season’s positive progress, Chelsea are actually worse off in the two most important categories in the Premier League table compared to a year ago.

Maresca wasn’t pulling any punches on the overall performance either, calmly admitting that Leeds were better in “every aspect” of the game and saying there was “nothing” Chelsea could take from the game.