🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: The iceman cometh

There have been plenty of good performances in the Premier League this season.

But none have quite reached the level of our Player of the Week …

Cole Palmer (Chelsea)

In all the years of this feature, there may not have been an easier choice than this one.

It was a weekend in which Micky van de Ven starred for Tottenham, Dwight McNeil got Everton out of trouble and James Justin netted perhaps the Goal of the Season for Leicester.

But head and shoulders above everyone else in the Premier League was Cole Palmer.

The Chelsea forward netted all his side’s goals – in the first half no less – as the west London side beat Brighton 4-2 in a wonderfully frenetic and flawed game at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have been growing week on week under Enzo Maresca this season but Saturday’s win was a throwback to last term when the Blues were a one-man band and Palmer was their showman.

Palmer completely blew the Seagulls away, but it’s fair to say the England international could well have walked away from the weekend with two match balls, such was Brighton’s commitment to kamikaze football.

As it was, the 22-year-old shouldered the responsibility of Chelsea’s attack and netted four that showed the true range of his finishing abilities.

A cool pass into the back of an empty net, a trademark ice-cold penalty and a clever low strike after good work from Jadon Sancho.

It was the hat-trick goal that truly wowed the home faithful and proved once and for all that Palmer is the first name on Maresca’s team sheet.

A free kick from around 30 yards that was bent brilliantly into the top corner, leaving even the coolest man inside the stadium a little flushed with excitement.

It meant that for the first time ever, a player in the Premier League scored four in the first half of a match.

After the game Maresca couldn’t have been more effusive with his praise, saying: “He scored four but he also could have scored two or three more.

“What he was as a boy is exactly what he was three or four years ago. Goals, assists, best player of the Premier League – this doesn’t change the way he is. He’s a humble guy and for me it’s the most important thing.”

Palmer, and Chelsea, go from strength-to-strength with a trip to Liverpool just a few weeks away.