Chelsea are about to see a new side to Cole Palmer as Enzo Maresca finds way to unlock his star

On a night which had seen Cole Palmer remain deadly serious and glassy-eyed, even he let the situation get the better of him by the end. After his fifth shot of the night, which came in the 52nd minute, he did briefly accept there was something funny at play.

After perhaps his worst effort, a half volley blasted over from a central position inside the Southampton box, Palmer grinned a little. It was more in disbelief than anything as he watched the replay back on the big screen and stuck his tongue out, leaving it in the corner of his mouth to ponder where his form in front of goal has gone.

Stamford Bridge, fully relaxed and recognising the need to support its current prince, got behind him and started to sing Palmer’s name. They, at least, did see the lighter side of things.

Palmer has never been this desperate in his senior career for a goal, though. Cole Palmer needs one to bounce in off him, which feels wrong to write about a guy who has orchestrated so much beauty and brilliance for 18 months. This is where we are at.

The only reason for Enzo Maresca to keep him on the field for 90 minutes when 3-0 up against comfortably the league’s worst team – and one of the worst of all time – is to try and reverse these fortunes. Well, that and there being eight full days before the next match.

Chelsea do not play in the Premier League until a week on Sunday. Palmer may not feature away to Copenhagen in the Conference League in between having not been selected in the group phase. He is back in the UEFA squad but that does not guarantee selection.

It will give him a fair bit of time to think. Palmer is currently on his worst goalscoring run since joining Chelsea. That, in itself, is quite remarkable. It is only seven games. This is totally human for a 22-year-old, especially one carrying the attacking weight of an entire side without much support.

Against Southampton, others stepped up. That was the difference. Pedro Neto looked sharp again through the middle and Christopher Nkunku showed more willingness to do the hard yards when crashing the back post to open the scoring.

Palmer, meanwhile, was stranded without a goal or an assist. The latter metric is, as Ange Postecoglou said earlier on Tuesday, largely completely pointless. Assists can take so many forms and are not representative of how well a player is performing.

The lack of goals, however, has been alarming. Maybe this is only true because of just how much others have dropped off. Outside of Palmer, Chelsea have also lost their two most dangerous alternatives with Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke injured.

His dry run has had a tangible impact because it has cost Chelsea results. The player who has saved Chelsea for so long has stopped doing that and things have spiralled so it becomes obvious.

Against West Ham he may as well have had a goal. It was his deflected cross which ended up winning the game. Five days later at Brighton it seemed to be his aura that spooked Bart Verbruggen into throwing his low ball into the net. He is still having an effect and is hardly peripheral, only wasteful, instead. This is not something Chelsea can afford to be in tighter matches when their defence remains unreliable.

Palmer has not been at his best, regardless, that much is clear. He was not as impactful as his lofty standards over a year-and-a-half against Southampton either. His determination to make a moment bend to his will was striking.

Palmer, alone, had seven of Chelsea’s 19 shots and generated 1.30xG out of a 2.56xG team tally. He accounted for two of the big chances missed and played one key pass. There was plenty of razor-sharp edge that wasn’t there.

Maresca, asked once more about Palmer’s form, reiterated the same message he has given in recent weeks. “We said since we start we cannot rely on Cole for every game. He has to continue to work, continue to be happy, continue to laugh they way he does.

“We are completely happy with him. It is normal to go through a moment where you struggle to score but it doesn’t matter. Just continue and you are going to score many goals.”

After a few weeks of frustration written visibly on his face, Palmer seems to have accepted that as well. Instead of the angst at Brighton or Villa, here he did calm down. Once the game was won, he managed to laugh off the missed chances with a grimace. It still hurts. But Palmer did not let it affect him as much.

Buoyed by the three points, he wrote on Instagram that he “will be back.” Palmer was first on hand to celebrate with Marc Cucurella after his goal even though there could have been slight annoyance that Tyrique George’s cutback didn’t fall to him.

George’s shot earlier in the game did leave Palmer bouncing in the six-yard box after not getting the ball squared. He did the same after Jadon Sancho failed to play a pass through the centre to him as well. These are the natural reactions of someone itching to score again.

What we are seeing is a new side to Palmer. He has had football his way for so long now that when it refuses to play to his rules there is an adaption needed. That is what is happening now.

Palmer will come through this because he is too good not to. He will be all the better for it. Maresca will have a stronger player available to him.

With Leicester City to come and a chance for Chelsea to build on this win with another, if there was a time for Palmer to struggle even a little bit then it is here. Chelsea can probably afford to have him not at full pelt.

When they visit Arsenal shortly after and then come back from the international break there will be attention on him to find the net again. If Palmer can ride through this storm until then, Chelsea will be confident of finishing the season well.