Chelsea: Enzo Maresca must unleash Cole Palmer on Conference League in bid to save season | OneFootball

Blues should use Copenhagen last-16 tie to help their biggest star snap out of slump amidst fierce top-four fight

Up until recently, asking Conference League opposition to defend against Cole Palmer would have been a trial fit for that stage.

Palmer has gone seven games without a goal or an assist across all competitions over the last two months, the longest such rut of his Chelsea career and twice as long as any since he very quickly became established as a regular starter.

More than once this season, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has praised the unchanging, “simple” character - that term meant in an endearing, not insulting sense - of the boy he knew as a teenager at Manchester City, a player with a straightforward outlook on the game, a player who never gets too high nor too low. A player whose favourite sandwich is jam.

But in recent weeks, even Palmer has become visibly affected by the current state of affairs, frustrated at Chelsea’s collective drop-off and baffled by his own. There were moments during last week’s win over Southampton when the 22-year-old seemed almost to live a series of out-of-body experiences, laughing at some shadow self’s inability to put away any of several simple chances.

Palmer has become visibly affected by the current state of affairs, frustrated at Chelsea’s collective drop-off and baffled by his own

We are straying towards “needs-one-to-go-in-off-his-wotsit” territory, though Palmer being Palmer, a 30-yard free-kick is more likely to end the drought.

“In terms of numbers, for sure,” Maresca said on Wednesday, when asked whether one goal would spark his best player back into life. “But I’m happy with the way Cole is, even in the last game [against Southampton] or Aston Villa away, where he had two or three chances. I know in some moments, he isn’t always going to score and it’s normal.

Whether Palmer starts on Thursday is another question. Maresca suggested here on Wednesday that, having wanted to manage Palmer’s workload pre-Christmas, it was always the plan to reintroduce him for the knockout stages, with hopes of doing likewise with Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana only scuppered by injury.

“For sure, if he is in the squad, he can play minutes, no doubt,” Maresca said.

The Italian has named his strongest possible travelling squad, something he never contemplated during the league phase, but still has the option of rotating heavily, even with several of his European regulars farmed out on loan in January.

You suspect, though, that targeting Thursday’s game, three days before a home meeting with Leicester, would be a shrewder play than risk chasing the tie in the return leg next week, three days before a trip to Arsenal.

That Palmer wants to play would appear to be in no doubt: “Cole is excited to play training sessions, so for sure, he is excited to play these games,” Maresca smiled.

The Chelsea boss has seen first-hand how players several cuts above this level can use the Conference League to play their way back into form.

The start of Enzo Fernandez’s upturn can be traced back to the night he laid on three assists in an 8-0 blitzing of FC Noah, straight after which he registered three goals and four assists in six league games.

The sight of Palmer turning out in Uefa’s third-tier competition (has a better player done so in its short history?) would provide another reminder that this is not where Chelsea belong. But if Maresca is to deliver on his pledge to return the club to the Champions League then he needs his best player to rediscover his best self in time for the run-in.

Here in Copenhagen, up the road from that big top of torture, might be just the place to start.