Chelsea heading for Hazard repeat with £96m star

Chelsea are flying proper now, claiming a fourth successive Premier League victory on Sunday afternoon, preventing again from 2-0 right down to defeat fierce rivals Spurs 4-3 on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Jadon Sancho and Enzo Fernández each pulled off long-range strikes, whereas Cole Palmer transformed a pair of second-half penalties, the second of which was an audacious, impudent Panenka.

This implies Palmer has now transformed 12 out of 12 spot-kicks within the Premier League, essentially the most any participant has taken with out ever lacking one, surpassing the previous record held by Yaya Touré, and that wasn’t a nasty option to do it, was it?

This victory lifts Enzo Maresca‘s crew away from each Arsenal and Manchester City, now very a lot Liverpool’s nearest-challengers, simply 4 factors adrift the league-leaders, albeit the Reds have a sport in hand.

On condition that the Blues’ subsequent seven opponents are Brentford, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Wolves, they’re prone to dangle across the title dialog a short time longer but.

Chelsea star wished by Europe’s elite

Following Sunday’s sport, Jamie Carragher stated on Sky Sports that he believes Palmer has been the best-performing participant within the Premier League because the begin of final season.

Nicely, based mostly on these statistics, it is onerous to dispute that declare.

As proven by this desk, simply seven gamers have collected 30+ objectives and assists within the Premier League because the begin of final season, with Palmer’s brace at Tottenham that means he has had extra direct purpose involvement than some other participant throughout this timeframe, yet another than Mohamed Salah, albeit having made three extra appearances.

The English star’s phenomenal kind is just not going unnoticed as a result of, as claims from Spain suggest in current days, Real Madrid are taken with signing the Englishman, with president Florentino Pérez allegedly admiring his ‘qualities and potential to grow to be a worldwide icon’.

The Blues signed Palmer for £42.5m, which now seems to be an absolute cut price, with CIES Football Observatory believing his worth has greater than doubled in 18 months, stating he’s price round £96m, which might be a conservative estimate.

Having signed a further two-year extension in August, Palmer is now contracted to Chelsea till 2033, that means he wouldn’t come low-cost, with the aforementioned report acknowledging that ‘the participant’s price ticket could be a significant impediment’.

An Eden Hazard repeat for Chelsea

Traditionally, Actual Madrid do appear to have a behavior in the case of poaching the Premier League’s premier expertise; David Beckham (2003), Cristiano Ronaldo (2009), Xabi Alonso (2009), Luka Modrić (2012) and Gareth Bale (2013) all spring to thoughts.

We have deliberately left Real Madrid’s all-time record signing off this record, as a result of which may be a somewhat delicate situation for Chelsea supporters provided that, regardless of the numerous variety of Galácticos which have donned the well-known all-white package on the Bernabéu over the a long time, Eden Hazard’s £88.5m move from Chelsea stays essentially the most Los Blancos have ever paid for any participant.

Truthful to say, this switch was not successful, provided that the Belgian made solely 76 appearances for Los Merengues, scoring a miserly seven goals, earlier than unceremoniously retiring with no membership on the age of 32 in October 2023.

After all, ought to Actual Madrid make a transfer for Palmer, they’d definitely be in search of to keep away from a way of déjà vu, however contemplating Palmer is simply 22 years previous, there’s minimal probability of this occurring.

In additional trendy occasions, the Champions League specialists have proven a willingness to spend huge on younger abilities: Aurélien Tchouaméni (£66m), Vinícius Júnior (£40m), and naturally Jude Bellingham’s £88m move the clearest current examples.

Nonetheless, the Spanish giants could also be pressured to interrupt their all-time document charge ought to they want to signal Chelsea’s star attacker, as they did 5 years in the past.

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