The Carabao Cup final is still fresh in a lot of people’s minds, and it was interesting to hear the thoughts of a neutral journalist who was in the stadium to watch the game.
Ken Early’s comments on the Second Captains podcast summing up the game were pretty damning of Chelsea as a whole. He’s seen a lot of us over the last two years, and clearly isn’t impressed by the team as a whole.
He did have some special praise for one player – Cole Palmer. This wasn’t a game where Palmer really stood out (his most notable moment was a missed chance, after all) but he still always looks head and shoulders above the rest of the team, as Early pointed out:
“[Palmer] seems to the the only one who plays as though he’s got a brain. Honestly, he’s the only who both sees the right thing to do and is has a better than average chance of executing that thing. There’s still traces of Man City there that haven’t been totally washed away by becoming a Chelsea player.”
Of course he’s speaking a little tongue in cheek, and is exaggerating. But his exasperated tone reflects pretty well what most fans think.
Do we really think Enzo, for example, doesn’t have the brains or the skill to play well? Of course we don’t. But if the rest of the group would play to the best of their ability as well as Palmer does, we wouldn’t be lingered in mid table.