Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has sent a message to Chelsea ace Cole Palmer ahead of their crunch match against Liverpool at Anfield. With 22 goals to his name last season second only to Man City’s Erling Haaland in the Premier League, and six so far this campaign, Palmer has started the campaign in fine form.
Chelsea, who are fourth in the league standings having lost only to them, face a stern test against the Reds following the international break. Palmer, however, was nullified in their previous Anfield meeting which saw Liverpool win 4-1, as well as in the Carabao Cup final when the Reds triumphed 1-0 with a youthful team at Wembley.
And Neville believes Palmer faces his biggest challenge of the season so far, telling NBC Sports: “I always think that Anfield is the toughest place to get space. .
“And you think about how Cole Palmer plays, and the way he always looks like he’s got time on the ball, it’ll be interesting to see how he does at Anfield and how Liverpool will attend to him.
“[They will] be really aggressive against him and test him. They won’t want to let him have any joy in the game and encouragement early on. Anfield can be a place where you can get bullied a little bit, off the crowd, the atmosphere.
He added: “I always remember when I went to Anfield [as a player], I think it’s the toughest place to go. And I think for a Chelsea team under Maresca, it’s a real challenge for them. And it will be interesting to see how they fare in that.”
Chelsea head into the international break after being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Nottingham Forest, who remain unbeaten on their travels. Chris Wood opened the scoring for Forest, but Noni Madueke equalised, and the visitors managed to hold on for a point despite being reduced to 10 men when James Ward-Prowse was sent off.
After the match, Maresca told Match of the Day 2: “I think we deserved to win. They are a very good team and we knew they would defend well. It was a tough and tricky game, very different to Brighton.
We were patient on the ball and created chances. Overall the performance was good and I think we deserved to win. Their keeper was the best of the game. We created chances and arrived at goal in the way we want to.”