It was a very, very dull first half at Old Trafford, so excuse us for capitalising on one brief moment of magic which lit up the game.
Cole Palmer had one of the better attacking opportunities in the first half when Chelsea nicked the ball and he was able to race towards the Man U box with options either side. In the end he elected to shoot, and his shot was easily blocked.
By his standards it was a disappointing return, without doubt. We’re never going to complain about Cole taking a shot on, given his record, but in this situation it was probably not the right call.
However soon after he produced the tastiest moment of the match. His signature move, which we saw a few weeks ago against Nottingham Forest and then again against Newcastle last weekend, was brought out again here just before half time.
Palmer draws defenders in by letting the ball across his body, but his back foot is ready and waiting to angle the ball into space on his first touch, giving him a head start on the opposition players trying to reach him.
It’s the perfect Palmer skill in the way that it fools defenders and lures them in by making him appear like he’s not planning anything, then uses that underestimation against them.
As ever, the only way to stop him once he had burst through the lines was to foul him and take a yellow card. Job done.
At this rate we’ll have a full two minutes compilation of this Palmer special back-foot touch by Christmas.
You can see the moment in the clip embedded here:
[Footage from Canal Plus]
We need more quality in the second half from both teams. If we’re going to win this game, we’re almost certainly going to need Palmer to produce more quality like this
