It wasn’t the Panenka penalty that was the best thing about Cole Palmer‘s performance against Spurs on Sunday although that was sumptuous and it was audacious and it was struck so deftly and delicately that it was still floating through the air when Fraser Forster climbed back to his feet at one side of the Spurs goal to watch the ball complete its ethereal journey.
Yes, it was a moment, executed when the result was still very much in the balance, that felt like a celebration of expression and joy but the highlight of Palmer’s reel at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium should be the sequence he unleashed in the 73rd minute of Chelsea‘s 4-3 victory that began when Pedro Neto slipped a simple pass down the line to him.
Palmer had his back to goal deep in the Spurs half and when he turned, Micky van de Ven moved towards him as if to close him down. Then Van de Ven thought better of it, as any sensible defender would, and gave way to Destiny Udogie, who took over Palmer duties instead.
Palmer processed the possibilities. He shifted the ball backwards as if to backheel it, which threw Udogie off-balance for a split second and in that split second, Palmer reversed the direction of the ball, pushed it past the Spurs left back and headed in the direction of the corner flag.
It looked as if that might be a dead end and Palmer does not like dead ends so he turned sharply back towards his own goal and then cut quickly inside, leaving Udogie treading water, floundering in his wake.
It was – and this is the highest praise because it was one of the moments of the 2022 World Cup – reminiscent of Lionel Messi‘s devastating move that tore up Josko Gvardiol in Argentina’s quarter-final victory over Croatia.
Cole Palmer continued his impressive form for Chelsea after scoring twice against Spurs
The Blues star produced a stunning panenka to help seal Chelsea’s 4-3 win on Sunday
There were shades of Lionel Messi throughout Palmer’s impressive north London display
It does not make Palmer the new Messi but it was still beautiful to behold. It still made the soul sing to see someone with that kind of ambition and that kind of ability and that kind of will to do something that doesn’t conform. Even a hint of Messi is a taste of honey.
With Udogie dismissed, Van de Ven had to intervene. It didn’t go particularly well. Palmer turned him one way and then the other as he slalomed his way into the Spurs box. Pape Sarr wondered about trying to tackle him but thought better of it. Yves Bissouma came over to try to help. That made it Palmer versus four defenders.
Palmer had drawn so many players towards him that when his attempt to play Nicolas Jackson in on goal was deflected by Van de Ven’s outstretched boot, it was hardly a surprise that the ball should fall to a team-mate in space. Enzo Fernandez did the rest with a good left-foot finish and Chelsea were ahead and the game was won.
He’s a special player. He’s the closest thing we have to Messi in the English game. He reminds some of Dennis Bergkamp because of his elusiveness. Perhaps Michael Laudrup is a better comparison than both of them. Palmer drifts past players like Laudrup used to, effortlessly and elegantly.
But like all special players, he’s different to anyone who’s been before. He’s making his own style. And perhaps it’s the scale of his ambition that draws us to him, his refusal to be constrained by the strait jacket of the modern English game.
We are not living in an age of individualism in football. We live in an age of systems, where discipline is king and the maverick is on the brink of extinction and wonderful players like Jack Grealish are reduced to being responsible.
Pep Guardiola, the City manager, is a genius but if he’d been directing Rebel Without a Cause, he’d have made sure Jim Stark was home by 9 o’clock every night, not playing ‘chicken’ next to the Griffith Observatory.
At the Etihad, Grealish is an upstanding citizen first and an artist a distant second. Fun is something Premier League players last had about 15 years ago.
Palmer produced a turn reminiscent of Lionel Messi’s move that tore up Josko Gvardiol
The England international now has 17 goal involvements from 15 Premier League matches
Meanwhile, Man City’s maverick Jack Grealish has struggled in Pep Guardiola’s system
Guardiola’s City teams are beautiful to watch but it is Guardiola’s beauty we are watching, not his players’. It is a beauty he has created, a systemic beauty, a purring machine, like all the parts of a powerful motor engine.
Palmer has the courage and the will to exist outside the machine. Which is probably why he wanted to leave City and why Guardiola let him leave. Maybe it was Guardiola’s biggest mistake. Maybe he just realised he could not bend Palmer to his will.
Palmer’s talent has survived being coached. It has not been knocked out of him. It has not been homogenised. It is to the great credit of Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca that he is giving Palmer the platform to flourish and it is to Palmer’s credit that he is seizing his opportunity.
He plays with impudence and mischief and insouciance and languor that is a mesmerising mix. He’s like a kid in the playground, who’s still playing for fun, who has not been worn down by pressure and expectation. He is our game’s great treasure and we are lucky to be watching him at the time his talent is coming into full bloom.
Hojlund’s celebration
He has only done it a couple of times but I am already finding Rasmus Hoijlund’s Gladiator-inspired thumbs-up-thumbs-down celebration rather irritating.
He’s only scored twice in the league for Manchester United this season, after all. He’s not exactly deadly in front of goal.
He’s also playing for the biggest club in the country and he’s part of the reason why they’re languishing in 13th place in the table.
If I were him, I’d stop reacting to the occasional goal as if I had a record like Alan Shearer’s and concentrate on scoring a bit more often. Otherwise, he might find himself in Ruben Amorim’s office one day, staring at a downward-facing digit.
Rasmus Hojlund has got a new Gladiator-inspired thumbs-up-thumbs-down celebration
My SPOTY vote…
I’m not much of a fan of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in its current form but if I were inclined to vote, I wouldn’t have to think very hard about it.
My nod would go to Joe Root, who scored a career-best 262 against Pakistan in Multan in October and, in the process, overtook Sir Alastair Cook to become England’s greatest run-scorer in Test cricket.
The idea that a cricketer who may yet go on to become the most prolific batsman the world has ever known and who is as decent and rounded a man as you could wish to meet has never even made the top three in the award voting is hard to comprehend.
