Football News

Premier League: Chelsea 6 (Palmer 13, 18, 29, 63 pen, Jackson 44, Gilchrist 89) Everton 0 

COLE PALMER is going through that glorious phase in a footballer's career where everything he touches turns to gold – or should that be goals?

The young attacker may have been deemed disposable by Pep Guardiola when Manchester City sold him in September, but where would Chelsea be without him? In a relegation scrap, most likely.

When Palmer completed his hat-trick within 29 minutes of kick-off, his total of 19 league goals made up over a third of Chelsea's total. And although the third was a gift-wrapped present from Jordan Pickford, there was no denying the quality of this 21-year-old, who has surely booked his place on the plane to Germany with England this summer. 

He made it four from the penalty spot midway through the second half after a bizzare tug of war over the spot kick between Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson, which ended with Palmer being given the chance to send Pickford the wrong way. And with that he became the first Chelsea player to score four goals in a league game since Frank Lampard in 2008, the first Blues player since Eden Hazard to score 20 league goals in a season, and joined Erling Haaland at the top of the current Premier League goalscoring chart.

And like Lampard and Hazard, he is not an out and out striker. He is that most desirable of players, a creative and cultured midfielder who scores goals of all types. His first came after a neat nutmeg on Jarrad Branthwaite, an exchange of passes with Jackson and a calm, controlled curler into the far corner.

After missing a sitter from a yard out a minute later – when Madueke's cross hit his backside – Palmer then scored a classic poacher's goal, nipping in

Cole Palmer Nicolas Jackson