Michael Owen delivers honest verdict on Cole Palmer’s Chelsea display vs Arsenal

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Chelsea sit third in the Premier League table over the international break after today’s stalemate against Arsenal.

The Blues came from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw in Sunday’s home match versus rivals Arsenal in the Premier League.

Gunners attacker Gabriel Martinelli put the visitors ahead in the 60th minute with his shot inside the penalty box. However, Chelsea drew level 10 minutes later with Pedro Neto’s first Premier League goal of the season from distance.

The emergence of Neto in the last few games shows the strength and depth in the Chelsea squad because they’re blessed with so much talent in the forward positions.

• READ MORE: Gary Neville shares what he wants Pedro Neto to start doing after watching him against Arsenal

Michael Owen reacts to Cole Palmer’s Chelsea performance

Michael Owen made an honest admission about Chelsea’s Cole Palmer after watching his display on Sunday against Arsenal. He made the interesting point that he felt like the 22-year-old Blues attacker didn’t get involved in the game as much as he may have wanted.

“I think it was a fair result. I thought it was a high quality game. I loved the first half. There were lots of incidents in the game. Maybe Palmer didn’t get into the game as much as he would have liked and as much as Chelsea would have liked, but there was plenty of quality on show, and we ended up with two goals,” Owen said via the Premier League’s official website (6:33pm, 10 November).

Darren Bent recently urged Chelsea’s Palmer to deliver more in the big games. Unfortunately, his performance against Arsenal at the weekend was another one where he struggled to hit top form.

Palmer had one powerful long-distance effort saved early on, but he misfired with a couple of free-kicks in the first-half. There wasn’t too much to shout about in the second period from him either.

Cole Palmer statistics vs Arsenal

Palmer’s been out of this world in Chelsea colours since he came to Stamford Bridge, but people are now starting to flag a recent run of struggling to impact these high-profile games. This comes after contributions against Manchester City and Liverpool earlier in the season.

Fotmob data has provided the individual statistics from Palmer’s display against Arsenal on Sunday.

• Match rating – 6.4
• Minutes played – 90
• Shots – 4
• Successful dribbles – 1/4 (25%)
• Touches in opposition box – 6
• Touches – 50
• Accurate passes – 23/30 (77%)
• Chances created – 1
• Accurate crosses – 0/4 (0%)

Dion Dublin recently told Chelsea they can’t be so reliant on Palmer on the pitch. In fairness, there’s plenty of others around him beginning to step up, but he’s still the outstanding individual in the XI.

Palmer will now join up with the England squad during the international break, where hopefully he can impress and get back to his very best.