Chelsea were beaten 3-1 by Flamengo in the Club World Cup on Friday, with the team as a whole really struggling on the day.
Pedro Neto managed to make an impact after scoring in the 13th minute, but most of his Chelsea teammates had an evening to forget.
Despite that disappointing result, Neto is enjoying being in America for the Club World Cup and thinks other players would love to be in his position.
Cole Palmer also started in attack alongside Neto that day but could not influence the game.
Tony Cascarino on Cole Palmer’s form
Palmer’s form has been really up and down in 2025, but the attacking midfielder has still been nominated for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.
It is something that has surprised former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino, who gave a very honest assessment on Palmer.
Discussing the 23-year-old on talkSPORT, he said: “One strange one is Cole Palmer because he was fabulous, not last season but the season before. I think he’s had a difficult year. I thought his form’s dropped off a cliff this year, so I’m a bit surprised there.”
While Palmer has not made the best start to this summer’s Club World Cup, Estevao Willian has.
Estevao has won two player of the match awards and is set to join Chelsea from Palmeiras after the tournament.
Palmer spoke about Estevao earlier this week, describing his future teammate as a “really good player”.
What Enzo Maresca wants Cole Palmer to do from the first minute of games
To influence matches more, Enzo Maresca has encouraged Palmer to be proactive and do what he wants from the get-go.
It comes after Palmer admitted that he got bored during the Conference League final after constantly going sideways and backwards after receiving the ball.
Maresca responded to Palmer’s comments, saying: “After the Conference League final, he said he was quite bored receiving the ball but decided to do something different. I said to him you can do that from the first minute, why did you wait? We ask him to do that because we are happy he does that. Cole is our best player, a top player.”
All in all, Palmer’s 2024/25 campaign was not as good as his 2023/24 one, but it was far from terrible. He finished the Premier League season with 15 goals and eight assists.
You would back him to find some consistency again, and when he does, Chelsea’s opponents could find themselves in real trouble.
