Cole Palmer’s stunning strike Chelsea defeat Fulham 2-1 on Thursday he broke the club record for most Premier League goals in a calendar year.
Midway through the first half, Palmer broke away from three defenders and calmly slotted into the bottom corner for his 26th Premier League goal of 2024.
Not Chelsea player ever managed more in the Premier League era, with Palmer breaking the previous record of 25 set by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink back in 2001.
Hasselbaink happened to be on duty as an expert on Amazon Prime’was covering the game and offered his reaction to breaking his record.
— I’m an old man! Hasselbaink laughed. “This has been going on for a long, long time. It’s time for it to go. There’s no better player than Palmer to do it.”
Unfortunately for Chelsea, the celebrations were short-lived as Fulham scored two late goals to seal a shock win, with Palmer admitting after the final whistle that the Blues must learn from the defeat.
“That’s football, it happens,” Palmer mused. “We lost control for 20 minutes and they scored two. We were winning most of the game, but losing at the end is difficult. We played well in the first half. We controlled the game. We had a lot of chances.
“The second half, it was like we lost control a little bit. They are a good transition team, they like to run, direct, so we got caught up with their game and we paid the price.
“I don’t think we lost energy or intensity, like the coach said we just lost control of the game, and we turned it into a game where they are better than us. We have to try to manage the game a little better.”
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