Coming off his first full professional season where he shattered records, it is no surprise that Cole Palmer is now receiving special attention from opposing players and coaches. 

After a fairytale last season, Cole Palmer is fast realising how difficult it would be to replicate his previous heroics as teams pay more care to shutting him out of games when faced against Chelsea. 

Nasty low-blocks to restrict central passages, man-marking and double man-marking tactics are a couple schemes coaches have deployed to limit the influence of the former City fringe player. 

Comparing the previous season, Palmer was deployed as a RW with the license to drift inside with an over-lapper beyond him, meaning he could find more space to exploit as he was more liquid in his movements and more difficult to man-mark.

With Maresca adopting a more fixed and rigid structure, Palmer has played predominantly as the central attacking midfielder or as a right-sided ‘10’, depending on the opponent’s structure. 

Identifying Palmer’s strengths and weaknesses, it is no surprise to see him struggle against teams with deep defensive lines and congested central spaces as the England international’s profile is that of a ‘passer’ rather than a ‘carrier’.

Palmer is no doubt as talented as the ‘Greats’ come but every player has limitations.

One limitation the ex-City academy graduate has is the lack of pace on the half-turn.

In relation to today’s game, Palmer’s limitations were on show as the 22-year old struggled to stamp his authority on the game with Everton playing aggressively and restricting Palmer’s touches as much as they could while ensuring he had little to no time on the ball.

In tight games with little spaces in behind the first line of opposition’s pressure, a player with the ability to dribble centrally and win fouls would have been more effective at the Goodison park. 

Despite all of these, it is in no doubt how crucial Palmer remains to the Chelsea cause.

He remains Chelsea’s talisman and his presence on the pitch always spells danger to the opponent. 

However, there are some games where the involvement of another maverick in Joao Felix could do the team a lot more good.

Irrespective of a player’s pedigree in the team, it is advisable that the coach picks and substitutes players based on game-state and suitability to the opponent.