“The problem is…” – Maresca already knows Chelsea’s biggest attacking issue | OneFootball

Cole Palmer has been the biggest story at Chelsea since he arrived at the club.

In fact, he’s been one of the biggest stories in the league. But so far, it’s all been positive. The focus is always on how good he’s been, how down to earth he is, how rapid his rise was, his deadpan demeanour, the mistake Man City made in letting him go, and so on.

The last few weeks have been the first time in the 18 months since he signed for Chelsea that we’ve started to see negative connotations and stories around Palmer.

The concerns started with Jamie Carragher, who quite correctly pointed out before the first Brighton game two weeks ago that Chelsea would risk losing their star players like Palmer if they continued to be stuck so far away from their goal of becoming a top team competing for trophies. They’ve since picked up legs as two more bad results have followed, and Palmer’s frustration has become more evident.

Maresca admits to “concerns” about Chelsea – but not Palmer

Enzo Maresca with a Chelsea logo. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Asked about it today, Enzo Maresca admitted that, while he wasn’t worried about Palmer, he was concerned about his team’s overreliance on the wonderkid:

“No, I’m not concerned [about Palmer’s frustration]. I’m always concerned about general performances, but I’m not concerned about Cole because Cole is a human being and during the season he can have some moments where he struggles a little bit more,” Maresca said.

“The problem is we rely on Cole for everything. I’ve said since we started, we need to rely on the team. For sure, we need big players like Cole, but we are not worried about Cole at all.”

Palmer should probably get a rest tonight. We look forward to seeing what Maresca has planned.