Keep smiling and goals will come, Maresca tells Palmer

Cole Palmer has been encouraged to keep working and laughing by manager Enzo Maresca, who believes the goals will then return.

The 22-year-old, who is Chelsea’s top scorer in the Premier League this season, has not found the net in his past seven appearances.

However, despite his latest blank against Southampton on Tuesday night, Chelsea returned to the top four with an emphatic 4-0 win over the Premier League strugglers.

While four Chelsea players did get on the scoresheet, Palmer missed a hatful of big chances throughout the game.

But, despite their star man unable to end his goal drought, Chelsea manager Maresca said his team remain “happy” with Palmer – and that the player should also stay upbeat.

“He has to continue to work, continue to be happy, continue to laugh the way he does,” Maresca told BBC Match of the Day.

“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.”

‘He’s a human being’

Palmer started the season in red-hot form for the Blues, scoring 14 goals and creating six assists across his first 21 Premier League appearances. However, he has zero goal involvements since.

Many Chelsea supporters, as well as Fantasy Football fans, had pencilled in Chelsea’s home match against a Southampton side who sit bottom of the league and have the worst defensive record as the fixture where Palmer would restart his goalscoring form.

And the former Manchester City man did find himself on the end of several chances, having seven shots – the joint-highest total for a Chelsea player in the league this season.

Palmer missed two glorious opportunities when one-on-one in the first half with one effort saved by Aaron Ramsdale and another dragged wide. After the restart he blasted a cut-back over the bar.

In total, his chances accumulated to an expected goals (xG) figure of 1.07.

After he had a late free-kick saved by Ramsdale, Palmer reacted by smiling, appearing to see the funny side of his barren run, which Maresca praised in his post-match press conference.

“It is how you react. He is reacting perfectly. He is smiling and he is happy. We have no doubt he will score more goals,” Maresca said.

“He’s a human being. All human beings, all big players, all the normal players, big club, big manager – we all go through a bad moment.

“Even if he is young, he shared time in a big club and he knows that all the big players go through moments like this.”

Palmer joined Chelsea from Manchester City in September, 2023 and has since scored 39 goals across all competitions.

Neto ‘fantastic’ in false-nine role

Stepping up on Tuesday were forwards Christopher Nkunku and Pedro Neto who both scored one and assisted another.

With striker Nicolas Jackson absent with a thigh injury, Neto, who was signed as a winger, once again played centrally in a false-nine role.

“We needed to find a solution,” added Maresca. “We tried one game with Palmer and we tried one game with Nkunku, Brighton away – didn’t work well.

“So the week after, we tried with Pedro in the week and we saw that it could work. I think Villa away he did fantastic. He probably give us a threat in-behind.

Neto scored Chelsea’s second, running on to a Nkunku through-ball before calmly finishing past Ramsdale.

“He is not just receiving the ball at the feet,” added Maresca. “He also likes to attack in-behind something which Cole and Christopher struggle [to do].”

Neto has scored just three goals and created four assists in the Premier League this season, although two of those goals and two of those assists have come in the past four games.