Former Chelsea defender David Luiz has become the latest individual to shower Cole Palmer with massive praise.
In the current Chelsea squad, there’s no doubt that Cole Palmer is the jewel in the crown. The 22-year-old attacker has been outstanding ever since he arrived at Stamford Bridge from Manchester City in the summer of 2023.
Palmer is enjoying a very strong season season so far with the Blues, scoring 14 goals and creating six assists in the Premier League. A key difference in this campaign is Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca prefers to play him in the central No.10 position, where he’s dictating a lot of attacks.
Peter Crouch recently compared Chelsea’s Palmer to Mesut Ozil after what he did in a league game, and he must be used to receiving such high praise.
David Luiz compares Cole Palmer to Chelsea legend
David Luiz, who spent two successful spells as a Chelsea player, was very popular during his time in West London. The 37-year-old defender played for the Blues between 2011-2014 and again between 2016-2019.
Luiz’s crowning moments for Chelsea came when he helped the club win their first Champions League trophy back in 2012. Furthermore, he was integral in an Antonio Conte side that stormed to the Premier League title in the 2016/17 season.
Luiz has now delivered a glowing verdict on current star Palmer for what he’s doing in Chelsea colours. In fact, he compared the English playmaker to Blues legend Eden Hazard and insisted he would’ve started in the great Chelsea teams he played for.
“Cole, like Eden, is on another level, he’s a world-class player,” Luiz told The Sun.
“He took a tough decision to leave Man City and it was the right one for him. Everybody can now see the amazing player that he is. I’m enjoying seeing him play. He’s intelligent and intelligent players are difficult to defend.
“He’d have played in my 2012 and 2017 teams — for world-class players there’s always a place.”
In a similar way to Hazard, Palmer is the most talented individual in the current Chelsea team. He’s still got miles to go if he wants to emulate the retired Belgian attacker, though.
Jamie Carragher claims Chelsea’s Palmer is reaching Hazard’s level with his type of performances. However, we’ll stress again the English youngster still has such a long way to go to match his achievements and impact.
| Player | Appearances | Goals | Assists | Trophies |
| Cole Palmer | 70 | 39 | 21 | 0 |
| Eden Hazard | 352 | 110 | 85 | 6 |
David Luiz raves about two more Chelsea players
In the interview above, Chelsea favourite Luiz admitted he’s also a big fan of Blues midfielders Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.
Luiz told The Sun: “I love a lot of players at Chelsea but in particular Caicedo. He has some amazing qualities, he’s powerful. He didn’t start well but he had the personality to keep going, keep fighting and now he’s started to show his class.
“Enzo is another top player, a world-class one. But sometimes when collective results are good, then everybody judges individual performances in a different way. Enzo is fantastic and at Chelsea he has many examples to follow to continue to improve.”
When fit and firing, Caicedo and Fernandez are a top-class central midfield partnership. It’s what you’d expect from players that cost over £100m each.
Maresca fears he could burn out Chelsea duo Caicedo and Fernandez by playing them too much, so he needs to continue to rotate when possible.
