The England international put in another impressive performance in Sunday’s 2-1 home win over Newcastle in the Premier League, netting the winning goal with a low drive from outside the box shortly after half-time, and also had one ruled out for the tightest of offside calls right at the start of the first half.

That took Palmer up to seven goals and five assists in the Premier League since the start of 2024/25, following his 42 goal involvements during his debut campaign with the Blues last season.

With those impressive figures joined by a host of individual awards, it would be easy for Cole to get caught up in the hype, but he reacted in typically understated fashion when told after the Newcastle win that he had been described as ‘unstoppable’ by the TV pundits covering the match in the UK.

‘I wouldn’t go that far!’ he balked. ‘I just try to go out there and play my game. I always try to enjoy my football, game by game.

‘I try not to put pressure on myself because I know many people will try and put pressure on me from the outside, to try and replicate what I did last season in terms of numbers.

‘But it’s only my second season playing regular football. I’m very young, so I’m just trying to enjoy the game and work as hard as I can.’

Indeed, that approach extends to the whole team, and Palmer insists the only voices he pays attention to are those from Cobham, belonging to his head coach Enzo Maresca, the Chelsea coaching staff and his team-mates.

Those discussions directly led to his brilliant pass to release Pedro Neto down the left flank for our first goal against the Magpies, turning the opposition defence and allowing our Portuguese winger to skip past a challenge and find Jackson in the centre to fire us into a first-half lead.

‘We just try to play our own game, block the noise out from the outside. All that matters is the manager and the staff inside the changing room. We’re just trying to take it game by game and we don’t mind proving people wrong either.

‘I just try to do what the manager says, depending what the game plan is. We knew they’d play a high line again, so that’s the reason I played the pass.

‘Me and Pedro spoke before the game, and obviously I know how fast he is, and I thought every time I’m facing forward down the side I’ll be able to play that pass in behind. So when he got on his bike I just tried to play it into his path.’

There was also praise from Palmer for the Blues playing behind him, especially during the closing stages when we had to stand firm to withstand a spell of late pressure from the visitors to secure a win which he believes is just the start of what this team can achieve.

‘The defenders today were top, making last-minute clearances, last-ditch tackles and being strong, because we know how physical they are with Joelinton, [Alexander] Isak, [Sandro] Tonali and others. So the defenders were very good today.

‘We were disappointed to drop the points last time in the league so to win today was important.

‘There’s loads more improvement to come from us. We’re all very young and we’ve got a top coach, so we’re still improving. We have a long way to go.’