Chelsea's youngster Cole Palmer remains undaunted by comparisons with legend Gianfranco Zola

LONDON – After his impressive goal and standout performance in Chelsea's 2-1 win over Newcastle United on Oct 27, striker Cole Palmer shrugged off comparisons to Gianfranco Zola. He admitted that he only knew of the former Blues and Italy great through a video game and preferred to focus on his own game.

“I know he is an icon on Fifa so he must have been good,” the 22 year-old Palmer told .

“To be honest I didn’t really watch him play. Everyone says he was a great player, so thank you.”

Palmer scored the winner for Chelsea against Newcastle in the 47th minute, picking the ball up in midfield and racing to the edge of the box before smashing a low shot past Nick Pope for his seventh goal in nine league games this season.

His role in the opening goal was just as impressive, collecting the ball while facing his own goal, turning and sending a defence-splitting pass in one movement that set up Pedro Neto to provide a cross for Nicolas Jackson to score. Newcastle’s goal came via Alexander Isak.

Palmer arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2023 and went on to score 22 league goals and provide 11 assists last season, earning him a place in the England squad for Euro 2024, where he scored in the final defeat by Spain.

Those performances have drawn parallels with Zola, who scored 80 goals for Chelsea in all competitions.

The diminutive Italian attended the game on Oct 27 and before kick-off said Palmer was “very special” with his ability to know what he was going to do with the ball before receiving it.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca said he understood why Palmer was being compared with Zola.

“They are quite similar in terms of quality, in terms of seeing things that the rest don’t see,” said Maresca, who worked with Palmer as a young player at Manchester City where he was part of the coaching team, before they both ended up at Chelsea.

“In the end, the reason why people come to the stadium is to see a player like him.”

Things are looking less rosy across London as Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou said his side had lost too many battles as they slumped to a 1-0 loss away to Crystal Palace on Oct 27.

Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the only goal of the game just after the half-hour mark at Selhurst Park to seal Palace’s first Premier League win of the season.

Defeat by one of their London rivals left Spurs eighth in the table, with Postecoglou’s men now having lost four of their nine league matches so far this term.

Inconsistency has been a perennial problem for Tottenham, last crowned champions of England in 1961, with Postecoglou accepting a Spurs side missing injured captain Son Heung-min had been outfought by Palace.

“It was one of those games with a lot of stoppages and battles and they (Palace) ended up winning a lot of them and coming out on top,” Postecoglou told the BBC. “They did better than us.

The Australian added: “I’d be very surprised if they (Spurs supporters) were happy right now. Why would I be happy? If I’m unhappy, then they’ll be unhappy.”

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was even more damning, telling : “They (Palace) fight and I think we lacked that today... We play good football but maybe sometimes we lack the desire to fight.” , AFP