Just one Chelsea player has more goals and assists than Cole Palmer after 100 games for Chelsea | OneFootball

Chelsea’s game last night was important not just because the Blues returned to the Champions League after two seasons out of it.

It also happened to be Cole Palmer’s 100th game for the club. The attacker celebrated in style, scoring a superb goal and shining as our man of the match in the defeat to Bayern Munich.

Palmer’s stats compare with all Chelsea greats

TransferMarkt’s list of Chelsea players’ goal contributions in first 100 games.

That’s his 74th goal contribution for the club – 45 goals and 29 assists. That’s just a stupendous record. He’s somehow managing to keep up the pace from his early days.

One one player has more goal contributions for Chelsea in their first 100 games – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink managed 77, as a striker. To compare him with a few others, Diego Costa had 71, Didier Drogba 70, Juan Mata 69, Eden Hazard 58.

Palmer’s insane record is best compared with club legend Frank Lampard – Lampard had just 23 in his first 100. After that the midfielder’s career really exploded – just imagine if Palmer has a similar path and longevity to Lampard. He could break all manner of Chelsea records.

Lampard’s advantage over Palmer in the long run

One thing Lampard had to help him was some amazing durability. He could play week in week out at a high level, he was rarely injured and always performed, no matter how busy the schedule.

Palmer can only hope to have that sort of consistency. It seems he’s nursing a groin problem at the moment, and we’re worried that continuing to use him is only going to make it worse.

Manager Enzo Maresca has some big decisions to make about his attacker now. Does he keep trying to manage the issue and risk making it worse long term? Or does he risk leaving Palmer out for a few weeks to heal fully?