21 year old Cole Palmer scored a Brace for Chelsea in the recent Carabao Cup semifinal against Middlesbrough. That took his tally for Chelsea this season to 11 goals and 7 assists in 22 appearances Source
When the young player signed over from Manchester City for £42 million some considered that he was overpriced as he hardly played for City last season.
Out of the 14 EPL matches he played, 12 were as a substitute thrown in during a game. He asked Pep Guardiola for more minutes of playing time but was refused.
It is not that Guardiola does not think that Palmer is not a good player, but was not yet ready to be given more playing time. There were players higher in Guardiola's pecking order.
The following post shows what Guardiola said about Palmer when he spoke of another young starlet of Manchester City
IF YOU WERE PALMER WHAT WOULD YOU DECIDE?
iS IT BETTER TO WAIT PATIENTLY IN A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL SiDE LIKE CITY OR TO TAKE CHANCES IN CHELSEA? (Note that Chelsea post Roman Abramovich was doing badly and has not won any Trophies)
Another ex Manchester City player who had a good game in the semifinal for Chelsea is Raheem Sterling.
Sterling has a terrible record for semifinals that would have superstitious fans worried.
His first semifinal appearance was for Liverpool against Chelsea in 2015. He scored the only goal for Liverpool in a 1-1 draw for the first leg. Liverpool lost 1-0 in the second leg and was eliminated.
And, amazingly, in 20 semi appearances since then for both various clubs and country, Sterling has not found the target again since.
He lost an FA Cup semi with Liverpool against Aston Villa prior to his switch to City.
And he played in a whopping 15 semi-finals during his time at the Etihad for City– but drew a blank in all of them.
Sterling scored only 1 goal in 22 semifinal appearances! Chelsea lost the 1st leg 1-0 and so have to score at least 2 goals.
CAN STERLING BE COUNTED ON TO PRODUCE?
Sterling did produce and Chelsea are through to Wembley.
CAN THEY WIN THEIR FIRST TROPHY SINCE POST ABRAMOVICH?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT COLE PALMER AND RAHEEM STERLING?