Chelsea flop was ahead of Palmer, now he’s only played 192 mins this season

Within the context of Chelsea’s latest historical past, the 2023/24 summer season switch window ended up being extraordinarily essential.

Within the technique of spending round £386m, they introduced 12 new gamers to the membership which was funded by numerous gross sales, particularly bringing in £226m, offloading 9 gamers on everlasting transfers, while additionally letting go of 5 gamers on a free switch.

This has been a combined bag to date, with the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Roméo Lavia, Axel Disasi and Robert Sanchez not turning out as they might have hoped, with the likes of Lesley Ugochukwu, Djordje Petrovic and Deivid Washington are nonetheless underneath the microscope to see how/if they’re carried out.

Nevertheless, there have additionally been some overwhelming successes from this window already. Take the likes of Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, and naturally, Cole Palmer.

The numbers behind Cole Palmer’s rise at Chelsea

It might appear to be a very long time in the past now, however Palmer was signed again within the 2023/24 summer season switch window, and wasn’t a first-team starter proper from the off.

His first involvements got here from the bench underneath Mauricio Pochettino, enjoying 28 minutes in opposition to Nottingham Forest, enjoying 27 minutes in opposition to Bournemouth and enjoying 22 minutes in opposition to Aston Villa.

It did not take lengthy for Palmer to turn out to be the star man at Chelsea, although, occurring to make 78 appearances for the membership to date, scoring 39 objectives and offering 21 assists throughout 6,319 minutes.

The 22-year-old is unfortunate to not have extra assists, particularly this marketing campaign, having the very best xA (anticipated assists) numbers within the league with 7.34, which is 0.33 greater than Mohamed Salah.

However in these first weeks of Pochettino, we did see a specific Chelsea star trusted in an unfamiliar function, which may have impacted the trajectory of Palmer had he not been injured on the time.

Chelsea’s 193-minute man

Carney Chukwuemeka was signed by Chelsea within the 2022/23 summer season switch window, becoming a member of from Aston Villa for a payment of round £20m. He arrived on the Bridge to fairly a big quantity of hype, notably described by Villa’s CEO, Christian Purslow, as “in all probability one of the best 16-year-old in England.”

Properly, after shifting to London, his first season on the membership was hindered by accidents, however he nonetheless managed to make 15 first-team appearances, totaling 362 minutes.

The midfielder then began the marketing campaign underneath Pochettino enjoying in an attacking midfield/right-wing hybrid function, beginning the primary two video games of the Premier League season, enjoying nicely in opposition to Liverpool within the opener, earlier than additionally netting in opposition to West Ham within the second recreation.

Sadly, Chukwuemeka suffered a knee harm in that very same West Ham match, forcing him off and conserving him out of motion till January 2024.

By this level, Palmer was, after all, thriving and due to this fact the midfielder struggled for constant minutes for the remainder of the marketing campaign, additionally hindered with extra harm points.

Quick-forward to now, the English midfielder was unable to interrupt into the primary group underneath Enzo Maresca, solely enjoying a complete of 130 minutes for Chelsea, 116 of these minutes coming within the UEFA Convention League.

On account of his lack of minutes, Chukwuemeka went on mortgage within the January window to Borussia Dortmund, the place he has once more suffered with accidents and solely totaled 63 minutes for the German outfit.

If the younger attacking midfielder can collect health and begin to get constant minutes someplace, he clearly has the expertise to blow up, however it could be very fascinating to know in an alternate universe, how the careers of each gamers may have differed had that West Ham harm not occurred.