“Peculiar” Chelsea transfer could be underrated as Cole Palmer replacement | OneFootball

Last night’s priority for Chelsea was to beat Lincoln and progress to the next round of the Carabao Cup, of course, but as a close second it was to avoid playing or injuring any more of their key players.

Enzo Maresca of course left out Cole Palmer, whose ongoing injury issues are the concern of all Blues fans right now. His replacement was Facundo Buonanotte.

New signing doesn’t spark much excitement among Blues fans

Facundo Buonanotte celebrates his first Chelsea goal. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Nobody has been very excited by the Argentine’s arrival. A straight loan from Brighton for a player who didn’t play much on loan for relegated Leicester last year – can you blame anyone for a lack of interest? As Dom Smith put it for the Evening Standard:

“Buonanotte’s deadline-day move from Brighton was perhaps Chelsea’s most peculiar signing of the summer, a 12-month loan with no option to buy for a player deemed good enough to only start 14 Premier League games while on loan last season at eventually-relegated Leicester. When Ruud van Nistelrooy had come in as manager, he’d fallen out of the team.”

Chelsea’s peculiar signing has more of a role than expected

We agree – it did look something of an odd move at the time, but that’s because we had been expecting Xavi Simons to arrive. It also made sense to us to use Enzo Fernandez more as a number 10 to replace Palmer, meaning Andrey Santos could play alongside Moises Caicedo in a double pivot.

But Maresca seems reluctant to do that – he certainly didn’t opt for that last night, even when he had young players like Sam Rak-Sakyi and Reggie Walsh who could have taken Caicedo’s place. It seems Buonanotte will have a major role to play instead.

Last night’s goal was promising, although we’ll need to see a lot more before we get too excited.