Palmer penalty perfection punctured

After six games, eight weeks and 25 shots without a goal, Palmer was presented with a penalty to end the longest scoring drought of his career. In another unwanted milestone, the increasingly ruffled playmaker saw his spot kick save.

Palmer had converted his first 12 top-flight penalties, surpassing Yaya Toure’s Premier League record. before Mads Hermansen succeeded. Where ten other goalkeepers had failed.

There were the typical delays from Leicester’s bickering players and even the referee questioned Palmer’s positioning of the ball on ทางเข้า UFABET สำหรับสมาชิกใหม่ สมัครวันนี้ รับโบนัสฟรี the spot. Adding more dead air to a frustratingly stop-start contest. Yet, these stoppages didn’t disrupt Palmer’s routine – he proudly doesn’t have one.

When previously asked about his process, the 22-year-old shrugged: “I just put the ball down on the spot, step back and shoot.” Perhaps, it’s time for some vague semblance of preparation.

Patience wearing thin with Enzoball

There was a damning passage of play midway through the first half when three distinct, collective groans seeped out of Stamford Bridge in less than a couple of minutes as a trio of Chelsea players halted their own chance of a breakaway. The deceleration from Wesley Fofana in particular was so forceful it was as though an invisible handbrake had been pulled. There was no doubt that Maresca’s fingerprints would have been on the handle.

As Leicester fans learned. While winning promotion to the Premier League under the Italian coach last season, the primary object of any Maresca team is patience. “If you attack quick, you are going to concede a quick attack,” the Blues boss has explained this season. “It’s not our idea, it’s not our football.”

Yet, that was exactly the type of football. Which defined Chelsea’s fast start to the campaign. Palmer repeatedly fed Nicolas Jackson’s forward bursts as a squad littered with fleet-footed wingers made the most of its strengths. Jackson’s continued absence has undoubtedly contributed to the dialled-down tempo, but Maresca has made no secret about his desire for measured build-up play.