LIAM ROSENIOR SPEAKS: "COLE PALMER IS HAPPY AND SETTLED," ENDING MANCHESTER UNITED RUMORS
Cole Palmer is back! Chelsea travel to Naples for a must-win UCL clash. Discover Liam Rosenior’s stance on those Man Utd rumours.
Cole Palmer is heading to Naples with Chelsea for their high-stakes Champions League clash against Napoli on Wednesday night.
Chelsea have to win in Italy if they want to lock in a spot in the knockout rounds and dodge that extra two-legged playoff next month. Still, even a win doesn't guarantee anything—Chelsea sits on 13 points, right alongside seven other teams. What happens depends on goal difference and how the rest of the matches play out, so it could all come down to the wire at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
Liam Rosenior, though, is feeling a lot better now that Palmer’s back in the squad. The 23-year-old midfielder has battled muscle injuries all season and sat out the last two games—Pafos and Crystal Palace—thanks to a thigh issue. But Palmer trained at Cobham on both Monday and Tuesday and then hopped on the plane to Italy.
Rosenior, who used to manage Hull City and Strasbourg, didn’t hold back when talking about Palmer’s importance to the team. He put it simply: “Yes and yes. Cole is an incredible player. I’m not surprised at the timing—a new manager comes in, and suddenly people think the player is unsettled. It’s just not true.
"There’s no reason for any assurances. It’s so unrealistic. This has come out of nowhere. There’s no need for the conversation. Cole’s happy.
"You can’t stop people talking, but some of this speculation is so far off, it’s not even worth discussing.”
That’s Rosenior’s answer to all the rumours swirling that Palmer wants out of London and might be looking to head back up north. There’s even been talk of him joining Manchester United, which would be wild considering he grew up at City.
Here’s who’s in Chelsea’s travelling squad:
Goalkeepers: Filip Jorgensen, Robert Sanchez, Freddy Bernal, Max Merrick
Defenders: Josh Acheampong, Benoit Badiashile, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto, Jorrel Hato, Reece James
Midfielders: Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, and Andrey Santos
Forwards: Liam Delap, Alejandro Garnacho, Tyrique George, Jamie Gittens, Marc Guiu, Pedro Neto, Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer, Estevao Willian
DID LIAM ROSENIOR’S PAST AS A PUNDIT INFLUENCE HIS DEFENSIVE STRATEGY AT ARSENAL?
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior hits back at critics after a defensive approach saw the Blues exit the Carabao Cup semi-final.
Liam Rosenior stood by his cautious approach after Chelsea couldn’t overturn their first-leg deficit against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final.
Down 3-2 from the first match, Chelsea never really put Arsenal under pressure at the Emirates. In the end, Kai Havertz—of all people—put the game to bed in stoppage time, scoring against his old club.
Rosenior switched things up, going with a back three and playing it safe. He wanted to keep the game close and try to push hard late on. He brought on Cole Palmer and Estevao around the 60th minute, hoping for a spark, but Chelsea still couldn’t carve out real chances. Arsenal just wouldn’t budge.
Pundits didn’t love Rosenior’s tactics and let him know it. He brushed it off. “I’ve been a pundit. It’s easy. It’s easy in hindsight,” he said. “If I go all-out and press high, we could give away two early goals, and then everyone asks what I’m thinking. That’s just how it is. Lose, and you’re hammered. Win, and you’re a genius. Usually, it’s somewhere in the middle.”
Chelsea were up against the league leaders, and with both Reece James and Pedro Neto missing due to minor injuries, Rosenior planned to hang in there and try to frustrate Arsenal—and maybe turn the mood in the stadium.
“That was the idea. You saw it,” he said. “I thought the psychological side of the tie mattered, and you could feel it in the stadium too. At 60 minutes, I brought on Cole and Estevao, and suddenly we had some moments around the box. I think people sensed this game could flip.”
It didn’t happen, though. Rosenior said he couldn’t fault his players for their effort, and in the end, Arsenal’s clinching goal came while Chelsea were throwing everything forward, desperate to turn things around.
IS JOãO PEDRO ACTUALLY BETTER THAN LIVERPOOL’S £79M HUGO EKITIKé? THE STATS REVEAL ALL
Liam Rosenior makes history as Chelsea win three in a row! Discover why João Pedro is the Premier League's best summer signing.
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over Chelsea in 2022, they've been anything but quiet in the transfer market. In just three and a half years, they've signed 54 new senior players and spent well over £1 billion.
Some of these signings haven’t even made it onto the pitch for the first team—guys like Gaga Słonina, Ângelo Gabriel, Omari Kellyman, and Caleb Wiley, just to name a few. But others have really made their mark. Think Marc Cucurella, Moisés Caicedo, Enzo Fernández and, of course, Cole Palmer. Now, the question is, has one of Chelsea’s latest summer signings done enough to join that group? Is he about to become one of the Premier League’s signings of the season?
Let’s talk about Chelsea’s summer addition and what he’s bringing to the table. It’s been a great week for Liam Rosenior’s squad. On Saturday night, they were 2-0 down at halftime to West Ham at Stamford Bridge. Somehow, they turned it around and won 3-2, with Enzo Fernández scoring in stoppage time to seal it.
That win made it three league victories in a row for Rosenior. He’s now only the fourth English manager to start his Premier League career with three straight wins—joining Bobby Gould, Sam Allardyce, and Craig Shakespeare. Not bad company at all.
Just three days earlier, Chelsea booked their spot in the Champions League round of 16 after a wild 3-2 win away at Napoli. Down 2-1, João Pedro scored twice in the second half to turn the game around. The Brazilian’s goal at the weekend kicked off Chelsea’s comeback, bringing his total to 15 goals for the club—including three at the Club World Cup. So, how does he stack up against other strikers who switched clubs last summer?
Looking at the numbers, here’s how the new strikers have done since moving in the summer of 2025:
Hugo Ekitiké (Liverpool, £79m): 15 goals (10 PL, 2 UCL)
João Pedro (Chelsea, £60m): 12 goals (9 PL, 3 UCL)
Viktor Gyökeres (Arsenal, £54.8m): 11 goals (6 PL, 4 UCL)
Nick Woltemade (Man United, £69m): 9 goals (7 PL, 1 UCL)
Benjamin Šeško (Man City, £66.3m): 6 goals (5 PL)
Alexander Isak (Newcastle, £125m): 3 goals (2 PL)
Liam Delap (Spurs, £30m): 2 goals (1 PL, 1 UCL)
Only Ekitiké has scored more than João Pedro across all competitions, but Liverpool paid about £20m more for him than Chelsea paid for Pedro. In the whole Premier League, only Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago, Antoine Semenyo, and Ekitiké have more league goals than Pedro’s nine.
But stats aside, Chelsea just look more dangerous with Pedro leading the attack. Their last league defeat? He started that one on the bench at Craven Cottage. Since Rosenior took over, Pedro has started and scored in every match.
Chelsea have brought in plenty of players from Brighton during the BlueCo era, but with the way things are going, João Pedro might end up being the best of the bunch.