Why Chelsea's Cole Palmer is signing of the season so far
It's that time of year when the conversation turns to assessing the Premier League's signing of the season and it will take a compelling argument to suggest that anybody but Chelsea's Cole Palmer deserves that distinction. Another goal and assist in Monday's 3-2 win against Newcastle only served to hammer home his credentials.
Chelsea have certainly made enough signings during the last two windows to get at least one right, but Palmer, who sealed a £40 million transfer from Manchester City on deadline day last September, has been a revelation.
The 21-year-old has had 19 goal involvements in the Premier League for Chelsea this season -- 11 goals and eight assists -- and in terms of players aged 21 or under in Europe's big five leagues, only Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid has registered as many goal involvements as his England teammate.
Arsenal fans will argue that Declan Rice has eclipsed Palmer during his first season at the Emirates following his £105 million switch from West Ham, but the size of Rice's fee, in comparison to Palmer's, rules out the Gunners midfielder. Dominik Szoboszlai. Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo have made a big impact at Liverpool and Micky van de Ven has transformed Tottenham's defense, but when everything is considered, no new signing has been as important to their new team as Palmer.
Chelsea's struggles this season have been well-documented and this win against Newcastle was still not enough to lift them into the top half of the Premier League table. But had they not been able to rely on Palmer's goals and his ability to create them, a bad season would have been a whole lot worse for Mauricio Pochettino's side.
"He's doing well," Pochettino said in his post-match press conference. "He arrived
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