Cole Palmer left stunned by Man Utd approach as Chelsea star recalls drama

Cole Palmer has labelled his winning effort against Man Utd last season as his favourite goal, but was left stunned by their rivals’ approach.

The young England star earned plenty of headlines last season after bagging 22 Premier League goals following his £42.5million move from Man City, but none resonated more than his dramatic stoppage time winner against the Red Devils at Stamford Bridge in April.

Palmer doubled Chelsea’s lead after Conor Gallagher put the hosts in front from the penalty spot. However, Erik ten Hag’s United managed a thrilling turnaround thanks to Alejandro Garnacho’s double and a Bruno Fernandes effort.

But dramatically, deep into stoppage time, Palmer scored once more from the spot to equalise. However, he wasn’t done there. Receiving the ball from a short corner at the edge of the box, the forward had so much time and space before unleashing a stinging deflected effort which found the back of the net to seal the win.

Recalling the drama on the Premier League show Uncut, Palmer declared: “This is my favourite goal. I just couldn’t believe how much time and space I had. When I got the ball, I took a touch and then I took another one and I thought ‘where is everyone?’

“Then there was just loads of players there so I thought ‘if I shoot on target, hard, I’ve got a chance’. When I got it, they were all pointing saying ‘mark him’, and none of them came out.”

Was he left surprised by the amount of space he had in the dying seconds? “Yeah, I was thinking, ‘what?’. I don’t even know why I was there, I just went there. It was a good one.”

For Palmer, it was the outpour of emotion that made the goal stand out from the rest. “You don’t even know what to do,” he said.

“I was just running, and then I saw the entire bench rushing towards me, and I thought they were going to tackle me. Initially, I wanted to run to the manager, but then I spotted Axel and Benoit, and I was like, no, change of plan.

“So, I sprinted in the opposite direction. It was all about the emotion, wasn’t it? We were trailing, it was the 96th minute, and they were just passing it around us, and then we scored two.”