Cole Palmer's Chelsea team-mate leaves very cheeky five-word message on hat-trick ball

Chelsea star Romeo Lavia aimed a sarcastic dig at Cole Palmer whilst writing on his hat-trick ball on Saturday afternoon.

Palmer scored four as he guided the Blues to a 4-2 victory over Brighton, becoming the first player in history to find the back of the net on four occasions in the first half of a Premier League match.

The England international equalised for his side after Georginio Rutter’s opener before scoring a penalty and free-kick to grab a 10-minute hat-trick. Palmer then restored his side’s two-goal lead with an excellently worked goal after Robert Sanchez’s mistake was capitalised upon by Carlos Baleba.

Palmer now has three hat-tricks to his name at Stamford Bridge and continues to assert himself as one of the most exciting attackers in Europe.

With his quality known around the world, team-mate and long-term friend Lavia could not resist the chance to make a cheeky dig at the expense of Palmer when signing his hat-trick ball at full-time.

The former Southampton midfielder wrote: “You’re a mid player regardless.” An image of the ball has since been shared online, with many Chelsea supporters laughing at how Lavia played down the excellence of his team-mate.

Enzo Maresca heaped praise on his No. 20 after Palmer’s superb solo performance, saying: “I know Cole Palmer from many years ago, I had him at Manchester City in the under-23s. The best thing is the way he is as a human is the same way. This doesn’t change his life and that is the best thing for him.

“You’d have to be blind if you didn’t see those kind of things with Cole. I said that he scored four but he could have scored more, I say always to be ambitious and hungry to score more.”