Maresca hails Palmer and James after Chelsea win

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Enzo Maresca hailed Cole Palmer and Reece James following Chelsea’s battling 2-1 victory over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge.

Palmer’s seventh goal of the season helped the Blues continue their impressive start to the season, three days after their resounding win away to Panathinaikos in the Europa Conference League.

Chelsea captain James, meanwhile, performed a vital role as the hosts had to maintain resilience towards the end when the Magpies threatened to take a point back to Tyneside.

Nicolas Jackson put Chelsea ahead in the 18th minute following a sweeping move, and Palmer restored the lead two minutes after half-time with a powerful strike. Alexander Isak had earlier equalised.

Chelsea have won five of their nine league games in 2024-25 so far, losing only to Manchester City and Liverpool.

“He (Palmer) never changes and he is exactly the same,” said Blues head coach Maresca. “The reason why people come to the stadium is to see players like him.

“I really like Reece but I expect more from Reece and the others. I say to him ‘you are captain for a reason’ every day.”

While Maresca – who likened Palmer to club legend Gianfranco Zola – was happy with Chelsea earning all three points, he is demanding continual improvement throughout a promising campaign.

“With Recce with Cole we know them and we are quite a young squad, and we need to build leaders,” added the Italian.

“Sometimes there is silence (in training) and you can’t change people’s personality but we can still improve.

“Sometimes you can makes make mistakes but we are not going to change the way we play. Today, if it was a basketball game they destroyed us. Newcastle are a powerful team.”