Chelsea’s courage

‘We’ve got our Chelsea back’ chanted Chelsea fans at the Spurs Stadium in north London, afterwards Cole Palmer will change a ‘style’ penalty in Sunday’s London ‘derby’ panenkaonly available on large stars. Given the tense moment of the match and the importance of the shot, the courage that inspired Palmer both reflected the new spirit of Chelsea, where the Italian. Enzo Maresca is changing the bad feelings of the recent past. The ‘blue’ fans of south London are smiling again with a team that wins, scores and is happy.

Second only to Liverpool, Chelsea is now a more organized team, more stable and, above all, courageous. Courage and courage define his actions, as he regains confidence, and Palmer is the embodiment of all that change. The evolution applied by Maresca revolved around the influence of the former player of Manchester City, who is now the head of the London Blues at the age of 22. His bet, from the first day of his arrival at the Cobham Training Center, was to base his project on two pillars: the technical quality of his many young footballers and the energy for their motivation.

At first, led by Cole Palmer, he selected forwards with dribbling and verticality, Sancho, Pedro Neto, Madueke and Jackson, along with Nkunku, Joao Félix and Mudryk as alternatives. For the second, combativity, they Caicedo, Roméo Lavia, Enzo Fernández, Colwill and Cucurellafive fixtures representing that search for balance. While some provide intelligence, skill and dominance up front, to unbalance the games, others teach the team strength and fighting spirit from the defense, so that others can play with freedom.

Watching Chelsea, the most obvious thing is to see how Maresca’s entire system is put at the service of Cole Palmer so that he can make the most of his talent. Something like what Liverpool do Mohamed Salah. But Palmer was a little smarter than the Egyptian. He is a natural leader on the field, with the ability to observe and invent the necessary play at the moment the team needs it. Same against Spurs. His actions wreaked havoc on Tottenham’s defence, finding their weak points and scoring two decisive penalties as the ‘lilywhites’ fell, once again frustrated and bewildered by their own mistakes.

Coming back from 2-0 down was a display of character, along with Palmer’s goals and leadership, cementing himself as the best English player of 2024. That ‘Panenka-style penalty’ rises above all to this symbol of Chelsea’s bravery, bold and courageous in the important moments of the matches. To highlight his qualities, Palmer revealed that he doesn’t even train, nor does he spend extra time at the Cobham training ground to perfect his technique, something Maresca doesn’t see as a bad thing. : “Cole “He belongs to the group of players who are not normal, they are extraordinary.”

All together meant that, with the order imposed by Maresca, reconciliations took place quickly at Stamford Bridge. Very little now influences the conflict between the two owners, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbaliwho only a few months ago were fighting over the ownership of the club. The confidence that Maresca and his team inspire permeates every crisis.