by This is usually a good season for penalties at Chelsea. After Monday night’s defeat to Mauricio Pochettino’s Everton team they were 14 and scored 12. Cole Palmer has taken nine and scored all of them, Noni Madueke is equally faultless from his two tries. Enzo Fernandez has scored one attempt from 12 yards out of two. Raheem Sterling has scored one and missed
This leaves out the psycho-drama that covered the ritual on several occasions. A faultless afternoon for the home team on Monday, there was another tiff over who should take the kick.
Cole Palmer was fouled with his team 4-0 up and Noni Madueke picked up the ball and stepped over the point. Captain Conor Gallagher ordered Madueke to pass the ball to Palmer, who ran it on himself, then Nicolas Jackson steamed in, apparently to plead Madueke’s case. Palmer pushed it away, sent Jordan Pickford the wrong way and made it 5-0. Jackson had to be happy to celebrate the goal.
All of this seemed unnecessary given the score and the generally upbeat mood. Perhaps Palmer should have announced three goals on the night and awarded his team-mates his penalty kick, but surely the decision for him to do so should not have come down to an internal tussle when it seemed briefly plausible that his partners would come. blown.
This is not the first time this has happened this season, nor the second, nor even the third. Sterling caught the ball from Palmer against Leicester in the Cup and missed, Madueke pleaded for the right to equalize with Palmer against Manchester United in the league earlier this month and Palmer and Sterling argued over the right taker against Arsenal in October. . Again, Palmer scored.
Perhaps one day Chelsea will learn the lesson that is obvious to every neutral observer: let Palmer handle it.
Pochettino issues ultimatum after penalty fiasco
Mauricio Pochettino hit out at his Chelsea players who insisted on a second-half penalty and warned his entire squad that they would be “out” if the incident ever happened again.
Cole Palmer scored four goals in a 6-0 thrashing of Everton, but Pochettino was left furious after Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson, who attempted to parry Palmer’s penalty.
Jackson argued with Madueke, who took the ball first, and then Palmer shook after Chelsea captain Conor Gallagher and Thiago Silva intervened.
Palmer eventually took the ball and scored the penalty – the fourth of the game – but Chelsea boss Pochettino described his players as “kids”.
“It’s a shame,” Pochettino said. “I told the players [in the dressing room] we cannot behave in this way. I told them that this is the last time I will accept this kind of behavior. They are all involved in this situation, the next time they are all out. This is not a joke.
“It’s impossible after performances like this to see this kind of behavior. If we want to be a great team, fighting for big things, we have to change and think more in a collective way.
“I made it clear to them, and now through the media, and I say to our fans and everyone, Cole Palmer is the penalty taker. And now it’s his choice if he wants to give the ball to another player, but it’s not like that.”
Pochettino added: “They are not experienced players who know what they are doing. They are young. They are children. They need to experience several situations to learn.
“We are like a school. We have to show that they were wrong, now they need to learn. If they don’t learn, yes, we will make some decisions. Now it’s about learning, using this experience to move forward.”
Palmer explains penalty scrap
Palmer earlier tried to play down the penalty by saying: “Other players were trying to take it, which was understandable. I’m the penalty taker and I wanted to take it. We just want to show everyone that we want to take responsibility. Maybe it was a bit over the top, the argument. We were laughing and joking about it.”
Everton midfielder Dele Alli, who played for Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur, was reporting for Sky Sports on the match and revealed that neither Jackson nor Madueke attempted to score Palmer’s late penalty against Manchester United to take part.
“In that last big game, when it was the last minute and all the pressure, I didn’t see them all fighting to take it there,” Alli said. “It’s fine when it’s 4-0 and you want to get on the score sheet. If you want to get on the scoresheet don’t try that at 4-0 in a non-pressure situation.”
Everton manager Sean Dyche summed up Pochettino’s anger in the penalty shootout with his team’s performance.
“Poor enough,” said Dyche. “A mile away from the intention and desire to win a game. You have to give strength, put in support. I thought we were a bit better in the second half, but the first half was a mile off.”
