Cole Palmer on 'difficult times' at Chelsea – 'He's always been there for me'
Cole Palmer has admitted that he has been leaning on Chelsea team-mate Tosin Adarabioyo, after a difficult year at Stamford Bridge. Palmer, 23, began the last campaign in explosive fashion, contributing 14 goals and six assists in 21 Premier League games.
However, from January 14 until the end of the campaign, he only got three assists and one goal, which was a penalty i n the Blues' 3-1 home victory over Liverpool. Palmer finished the campaign with a brace of assists in Chelsea's Europa Conference League triumph over Real Betis, but the second half of the campaign fell below his standards.
He also started the Club World Cup slowly, failing to make a goal contribution in the first two games, before providing an assist against Benfica and scoring a wonderful goal in the quarter-final win over Palmeiras. After the latter, Palmer admitted he has often struggled with the pressure, on and off the field.
Guiding him through this process has been experienced Chelsea defender Adarabioyo who, as a former Manchester City academy star himself, has known the midfielder since he was a promising teenager. When asked why he specifically looked for Adarabioyo while he was celebrating his strike against the Brazilians, Palmer said: "That's my boy.
"Obviously, I've had a difficult time these past whatever months on and off the pitch, but he's always been there for me and he's helped me a lot. So, yeah, I just thought I'd go over to him."
Before their round of 16 clash against Benfica, the ex-Fulham central defender came to Palmer's defence, backing his friend to come back to form. Referring to the many banners in the United States that have made Palmer one of the faces of the Club World Cup, Adarabioyo told reporters: "I've known Cole since he was a young boy so even me seeing him on those big banners makes me very, very proud.
"I think people do forget that he's still 22, 23 years of age and he's one of the faces of this tournament. Obviously his life has changed in the past two years.
"I banter him some time and tell him he's a little superstar. But yeah, he handles it very well. He knows his focus is brilliant on football. He loves playing football and that's Cole Palmer for you.
"You say he's receiving a lot of scrutiny. I don't think Cole really looks at that and us as team-mates aren't really looking at that.
"He performs at a very high level every time he steps on the pitch. So our job is not just to help Cole Palmer but every single player on the pitch perform as well as they can."
Chelsea face Fluminese for a place in the Club World Cup final on Tuesday, July 8. They will be the third Brazilian side the Blues have faced in the USA, having lost 3-1 to Flamengo and beaten Palmeiras 2-1.
The Blues will be reunited with Fluminese central defender and Chelsea legend Thiago Silva, who won the Champions League with the west Londoners. The South Americans have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament, having drawn with Borussia Dortmund, beaten Inter Milan and most recently knocked out Al-Hilal, who had seen off Manchester City.
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