Cole Palmer ready to shine for Chelsea under Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso believes Chelsea are about to see the real Cole Palmer again – and this time, without the limp.
The new Chelsea manager insisted the 24-year-old has finally shaken off the groin problems that derailed his campaign and cost him a place at the World Cup, backing the forward to return to “world class” levels this season.
Alonso backs a “world class” Palmer
“Cole is determined to enjoy his football,” Alonso said. “He wants to be fit. He wants to feel healthy. He wants to have a good connection with the players around him.
“I've said that if we have this Cole and we are able to reach him and he feels that flow in the game and that he connects well with the players, I'm sure that his level is top class, world class I would say, and that he will have a great season.”
Palmer’s numbers last year told the story of a stop-start season. He made just 26 Premier League appearances, scored 10 goals and rarely hit the explosive heights of his first two campaigns at Stamford Bridge. The sharp turns, the acceleration into pockets of space, the disguised passes – all were seen in flashes, not in full flow.
At times, after his return from injury, he looked like he was running with the handbrake on. His mobility was clearly restricted and his creative output dipped, a problem that fed into a broader malaise as a misfiring Chelsea side slumped to 10th.
Injury that never really went away
The trouble began in August. Palmer was named in the starting XI for Chelsea’s 5-1 win at West Ham, only to be withdrawn shortly before kick-off with the groin issue that would stalk his season.
He featured just twice more in the league before December. Once he was back, he stayed back – missing only two top-flight games from that point – but never quite looked free. Former boss Thomas Tuchel admitted publicly in March that Palmer had been unable to fully extend his groin after returning, an admission that underlined how long he had been playing at something less than 100%.
The knock-on effect was brutal. When Tuchel named his England squad for the World Cup, Palmer was left out. The omission stung, but it also gave him something he had not had in years: time.
For the first time since 2022, Palmer went into a summer without competitive football, without the constant churn of games. A break, at last.
“Difficult period” now the fuel
Ahead of Monday night’s Premier League opener away to Fulham at Craven Cottage, Alonso was asked directly if those injury worries now belong to the past.
“Yes,” he replied. No hesitation.
“I think that sometimes you need to go through a difficult moment with an injury or whatever to learn from that.
“I think that Cole has gone through a difficult period with the injury, and now he's working really hard to have the prevention not to have to feel those symptoms.
“Since the first day, he's been working really hard to avoid that.”
The message is clear: Palmer is not just fit enough to play; he has rebuilt the foundations. The emphasis at Cobham has been on prevention, on making sure the groin problem that once limited his stride does not creep back into his game or his head.
New faces, new stage
Chelsea themselves will look different when they walk out in west London. Monday’s derby is likely to see a flurry of debuts, with Maxence Lacroix, Morgan Rogers and Marco Palestra all available for selection.
New manager, new signings, a short trip across the capital and a clean bill of health for one of the club’s most gifted attackers.
For Palmer, stripped of pain and excuses, the question is no longer about his groin.
It’s about how high his ceiling really is when nothing is holding him back.
