Cole Palmer: Chelsea star more efficient than Haaland as 10 remarkable stats show why he’s signing of season

After his four-goal haul in Chelsea’s 6-0 demolition of Everton on Monday evening, Cole Palmer’s debut season with the Blues keeps getting more and more impressive.

Eyebrows were raised when Mauricio Pochettino’s side paid £42million to sign the young and relatively inexperienced attacking midfielder from Manchester City on the last day of the summer transfer window.

But Palmer’s electrifying form has been the bright spark in a tumultuous campaign for Chelsea. The 21-year-old England international has made the fee paid for him look like the bargain of the season.

Here are 10 stunning statistics that sum up the Stamford Bridge superstar’s stellar season.

Golden Touch
His four goals against Everton took Palmer’s tally for the season to 20 in the Premier League.

That makes him joint-first in the race for the Golden Boot, a remarkable feat for an attacking midfielder, not least because the player he is currently tied with in the top spot is former Manchester City team-mate and bona fide goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland.

More deadly than Haaland
And what’s more, Palmer has plundered his impressive goals return at a significantly more efficient rate than Haaland.

The Chelsea star has required just 60 shots to score his 20 goals, compared to Haaland’s 83. And while the Norwegian’s average of a goal every 109 minutes would be the envy of any striker in the world, Palmer is currently finding the net every 106 minutes.

Creator
In addition to his incredible scoring, Palmer is also proving to be one of the Premier League’s most consistent and reliable creators, too.

Only three players – Kieran Trippier, Ollie Watkins and Pascal Gross, who each have 10 – can better the two-cap England man’s record of nine assists in the league this season.

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Doing it all
Combining his goals and assists, Palmer has directly contributed to 28 Premier League goals this term, a figure no player can beat.

Only Aston Villa’s Watkins matches Palmer for goal contributions. And with seven games left to play, Palmer needs just two more goal contributions to equal Stamford Bridge icon Eden Hazard’s total from the 2017-18 season, which stands as the best return by a Chelsea in the last 13 years.

Home Hot Streak
His first goal against Everton – a sublimely curled finish from 20 yards after a slick back-heel and one-two with Nicolas Jackson – kept alive Palmer’s streak of scoring in consecutive home games, which now stretches to seven.

That’s a feat no Chelsea player in the Premier League era has managed, one better than the best Stamford Bridge scoring runs of Didier Drogba and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Turbo Treble
And by the time Palmer netted his third of the game against the hapless Toffees in the 29th minute – a spectacular, dipping effort from 35 yards to take advantage of Jordan Pickford’s botched clearance – he had set another club record: the fastest Premier League hat-trick by a Chelsea player.

Back-to-back-hat-trick
And, of course, home hat-tricks are nothing new to Palmer. In his very last Premier League outing at Stamford Bridge, he scored three times to fire the Blues to a dramatic stoppage-time victory over Man Utd.

His treble against Everton made him the first player to notch back-to-back Stamford Bridge hat-tricks since Drogba in 2010.

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Fantastic Four
Drogba is not the only Chelsea legend whose feats of brilliance Palmer is matching of late, either.

With his haul versus Everton, the Blues’ No.20 became only the fourth Chelsea player to score four goals in a single Premier League game and the first to do so since Frank Lampard filled his boots in a 7-1 victory over Aston Villa in March 2010.

One-man Show
With 10 goals from his last five Premier League games, Palmer has now single-handedly outscored several Premier League teams since the beginning of March, including title-chasing Liverpool (nine).

Cole as Ice
Palmer’s fourth on Monday night came from the penalty spot – after captain Conor Gallagher was able to wrestle the ball away from Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke to hand it to the Blues’ regular spot-kick taker. And Palmer once again proved why he is not only the best man for the job within Pochettino’s squad but perhaps in the entire league.

Firing past Pickford, he maintained a perfect record from 12 yards, taking him to nine from nine for the season. In Premier League history, only Yaya Toure (11) boasts a better 100 per cent return from the spot.

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