Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca will be pleased with how his players have performed in the first half of the season.
The above obviously includes Cole Palmer, who is having another fantastic campaign at Chelsea.
Last term, the attacking midfielder scored 22 goals in the Premier League, and he has kept his shooting boots on for this season.
Just as he did against Everton, Palmer netted four times in a 4-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion back in September. Of course he makes the list of Chelsea’s three best performers for the 2024/25 campaign so far, but who else does?
3. Marc Cucurella
Marc Cucurella has really turned his Chelsea career around. The defender joined Chelsea from Brighton in 2022 and had a difficult debut season at Stamford Bridge.
Despite being bought for more than £60m, he would go on to make just 21 starts in the Premier League and was even booed at one point.
Fast forward to now, and the 26-year-old has become one of Chelsea’s most important players, thriving in an inverted full-back role under Enzo Maresca.
He has put in some really good performances this season, including in a 3-0 win against Aston Villa, for example. That day, Cucurella made four tackles and was not dribbled past once, according to WhoScored.
The Spaniard has not been perfect. Jamie Carragher labelled Cucurella “embarrassing” after his two costly errors in Chelsea’s London derby versus Tottenham Hotspur. But overall, he has been one of Chelsea’s top performers under Maresca.
2. Moises Caicedo
Like Cucurella, Moises Caicedo also found the transition from Brighton to Chelsea difficult.
His £115m price tag, which remains a British record transfer fee, looked like a real burden on his shoulders last term. Yet today, it is not something that is even mentioned.
Caicedo has been phenomenal and perhaps the best midfielder in the Premier League. For as much quality as Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia have, without him, Chelsea would not be where they currently are.
Maresca has really relied on him, with former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood claiming that Caicedo “fits two positions”.
1. Cole Palmer
Caicedo and Cucurella have both gone up another level this season, but Palmer remains the team’s top performer and Maresca’s most important player.
The 22-year-old continues to win games for Chelsea and single-handedly at times. You can think back to those two wins against Brighton and Tottenham, where he scored six goals combined.
But forget the goalscoring, his mere presence on the pitch causes problems, with teams not knowing whether to get close to him or back off.
Destiny Udogie did his best to stop the England international in Spurs’ 4-3 loss to Chelsea but got absolutely destroyed.
“He couldn’t even lay a glove on him!”, Rio Ferdinand said when he discussed Udogie’s battle with Palmer.
There is no doubt that Palmer is Chelsea’s best player and he has shown that during the first half of this exciting Premier League campaign.
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