Mauricio Pochettino Hails Cole Palmer After Helping Chelsea To Survive United

Chelsea manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has stressed that Cole Palmer is a “top player” after scoring a late-minute hat-trick against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Thursday, April 4.

Chelsea started scoring as early as the 4th minute of the encounter, courtesy of Conor Gallagher’s opener. Then, Cole Palmer doubled the lead via a spot-kick in the 19th minute.

From that point, coach Mauricio Pochettino and his boys were expected to have it very easy against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, but the game turned against them in the 34th minute when Alejandro Garnacho got one goal back for the Red Devils.

Two minutes later, poor defending helped Bruno Fernandes score the equalizer in the 39th minute, and Manchester United took the lead in the 67th minute courtesy of Garnacho’s strike.

United’s fans thought that would be the winner, especially after hitting the 90th-minute mark, but Cole Palmer had other ideas. The 21-year-old Englishman scored two goals in two minutes of stoppage time, one from the penalty spot, to earn Chelsea an unprecedented 4-3 win over the Red Devils.

After the game, coach Pochettino said: “One of the best skills is his mentality and his capacity to deal with the pressure.

“He’s young and I think it’s his first season playing very consistently. I think it’s amazing how he is dealing with the pressure. That is all that can be a very good player.

“With the performance today it’s impossible to say that he’s not a top player.”

The Argentine tactician added, “The impact is amazing. He is doing a fantastic job, but it is difficult to talk more about him. Today he showed the mentality and the quality.

“I said ‘Cole, two minutes more and to believe’.”

Cole Palmer has now scored six goals in his last four games and has 16 goals in the Premier League for Chelsea this season, eight of those goals are from the penalty spot. He is currently two goals behind Erling Haaland of Manchester City in the top scorers ranking so far this season.