Chelsea blew a two-goal lead against Leeds United on Tuesday Cole Palmer (£10.5m) somehow missed a sitter in stoppage time.
Here are our Scout Notes from Stamford Bridge.
ANOTHER PALMER PEN
Fresh from his hat-trick at Molineux, Palmer was once again busy pulling the strings for Chelsea on Tuesday.
Of Enzo Fernandez (£6.9m) used from the left, as in Gameweek 25, the pair often switched positions, meaning the Blues were able to overload the center on a regular basis.
Palmer therefore found enough space between the lines in Liam Rosenior’s fluid 4-2-3-1 formation.
As for Enzo, he did much more defensive work than his teammate, but still scored three shots and created five chances.
Above: Cole Palmer (left) and Enzo Fernandez’s (right) touch heatmaps against Leeds United
After his assist for João Pedro‘s (£7.6 million) opener, Palmer scored his third penalty in two games.
It could have been more, too: Palmer missed a sitter in the final moments and somehow fired over from just a few yards out.
The miss had an expected goals value (xG) of 0.87:
PEDRO’S SHOTS
Pedro also turned heads and was Chelsea’s leading shot taker of the Gameweek.
The Brazilian fired the hosts ahead in the 24th minute through Palmer’s inch-perfect through ball. As was the case on Saturday, he also won a penalty for Palmer to convert.
That’s now nine offensive returns in five games under Rosenior.
Pedro’s shooting also attracted a lot of attention on Tuesday.
Against Leeds he scored seven shots into the penalty area, the most he has ever had in a Premier League match.
It will no doubt interest a few potential Pedro buyers in Gameweek 27 when Chelsea have a good home game against Burnley.
“He’s a top player, he always has been. I know when I spoke to the boys and the club how hard I worked to bring him to the club because he had that potential and he’s starting to show that now. Some of the play, some of the movements and the patterns in the first half were everything I wanted to see in the team.”
“And Joao fits the way I want to play down to the ground. And even at the end, his energy level, to create the chances for himself in the second half the way he did, he was really unlucky with the header. He shows me an energy, intensity and a quality that is of a very, very high level.” – Liam Rosenior on Joao Pedro, via Football London
CUCURELLA INJURY LAST
Replace Chelsea Marc Cucurella (£6.1m) with Jorel Hato (£4.6 million) at half-time due to injury.
Rosenior said in his post-match presser that the Spaniard will now have a scan done for a possible hamstring problem.
“Unfortunately he felt his hamstring at half-time. It wasn’t a tactical change, it was one that was forced. Cucu has been top and hopefully he will be fine. We will scan him and make sure we find out if he is available for the next game.” – Liam Rosenior on Marc Cucurella
Chelsea conceded twice after his departure, keeping just one clean sheet in their last five games.
Ree James (£5.7m), who Rosenior said was ill before this match, failed to make the matchday squad.
Elsewhere, Moses Caicedo (£5.7 million) picked up his eighth booking of the season. Two more warnings before Chelsea take part in their 32nd match will result in a two-match ban.
WHY CALVERT-LEWIN IS MISSING, BOGLE ‘OOP’
There was no room for it Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.9m) in Leeds’ matchday squad at Stamford Bridge.
He dropped out completely due to illness.
“Pascal Struijk, Dominic Calvert-Lewin who is unfortunately struggling with illness and Anton Stach, they are all key players for us. They are all missing.” – Daniel Farke
In his absence, Lucas done (£5.0 million) topped the line, with Jayden Bogel (£4.4m) – who scored against Nottingham Forest on Friday – moved into an advanced role on the right wing.
From that position, Bogle was fantastic, claiming the assist for Leeds’ penalty after Caicedo had fouled him. He was also closely involved in the equalizer.
“Thank God today we saw that he could play on the right wing and also in the pocket. We surprised Chelsea a bit. If we hadn’t conceded such cheap goals, we might have seen more of him. If the match had lasted longer, we would have seen more of him in the future. I didn’t want to disturb the relationship between Justin and Bogle. Jayden would never have played that role, but my players showed their tactical flexibility. Thank God it worked and all credit goes to them for that.” – Daniel Farke on Jayden Bogle
Meanwhile, central defenders Joe Rodon (£3.9 million) and Jaka Bijol (£3.9m) both collected defensive contribution points (DefCon), the only players from either side to do so at the time of writing.
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