Cole Palmer Shines in Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea Debut

Cole Palmer walked back into the spotlight at Craven Cottage and treated Xabi Alonso’s first night as Chelsea head coach like a personal statement. Chaos all around him, goals flying in at both ends, a goalkeeper unravelling behind – and still he looked in total control.

Chelsea edged a frantic 3-2 win over Fulham on Monday Night Football, and every time the game threatened to slip from their grasp, their front three simply went again.

Palmer, Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers played like they already owned the league. All three scored. All three tortured Fulham’s back line. For long spells, Chelsea’s defending barely seemed to matter.

Palmer back on the big stage

Palmer arrived here with questions hanging over him after an injury-riddled campaign and a summer off while England went to the World Cup without him. He left with most of those questions answered.

He set the tone inside 31 seconds.

Maxence Lacroix rose in his own half, thumped a header straight through Fulham’s midfield and suddenly blue shirts were running. Palmer collected, lifted his head and slid in Joao Pedro, who finished ruthlessly to silence Craven Cottage before many had taken their seats.

Chelsea never really eased off from that moment. Palmer buzzed between the lines, drifting wide, dropping deep, demanding the ball. This was the sharp, arrogant version of him that had gone missing too often last season.

Asked on Sky Sports afterwards how ready he felt for the new season, he didn’t bother dressing it up: “Did you not watch the game?” The performance had already done the talking.

Fulham hit back, Sanchez unravels

For all Chelsea’s early swagger, Alonso’s first match in charge exposed an old problem: the goalkeeper.

Robert Sanchez has never fully convinced as Chelsea’s No 1, and this was the kind of night that sticks to a keeper’s reputation.

With Chelsea 1-0 up and comfortable, Fulham found a route back. Josh King cut inside and drove a fierce but saveable effort at Sanchez’s near post. The Spaniard got down, but not well enough. The ball squirmed through and Fulham were level on 23 minutes, Craven Cottage suddenly alive.

It should have been a jolt. Instead, Chelsea’s front three simply raised the tempo again.

Rogers announces himself

Rogers, making his debut, had already hinted at his threat with clever movement off the left. Just before half-time, he made it count.

Lacroix, again, provided the platform with a measured cross from the right. Rogers timed his run perfectly, ghosting to the back post completely unmarked. One composed finish later and Chelsea were 2-1 up, their record signing off the mark and already looking at home.

Fulham’s defending was ragged. Their first glimpse of life under Alvaro Arbeloa suggested an aggressive, front-foot side determined to attack whoever stands in front of them. The flip side was clear: when Chelsea broke, they broke through.

Chelsea strike again, Fulham refuse to fold

Any hopes of a calmer second half vanished within minutes of the restart.

Calvin Bassey stepped up when he didn’t need to, misjudged the flight of a flick-on, and Rogers was away again. He beat the Fulham defender to the ball, slipped it into Joao Pedro, and the Brazilian rolled it across for Palmer to sweep in Chelsea’s third on 49 minutes.

It felt like the moment Chelsea might run away with it. Instead, the game tilted back on Sanchez’s gloves.

Timothy Castagne tried his luck from the edge of the box. The shot was routine, straight at the keeper. Sanchez spilled it horribly, dropping the ball at the feet of Goncalo Garcia, who pounced to score on his debut and drag Fulham back to 3-2 just five minutes after Palmer’s strike.

From there, the night became a test of nerve.

Arbeloa’s imprint and a missed chance

Arbeloa’s Fulham did not retreat. They kept coming, pushing high, throwing bodies forward. They carved Chelsea open often enough to suggest this new era will be anything but dull.

They should have snatched a point.

With Sanchez stranded in no man’s land late on, Antonee Robinson found himself with the chance of the night. The goal gaped, the chip was on, but his finish was wild, skewed well wide. Craven Cottage groaned; Chelsea breathed again.

Arbeloa, speaking to Sky Sports, refused to step back from his approach.

“It’s a new project. Time is something we coaches don’t have. But if we continue to play in that way, we’re going to win a lot of games,” he said. “This is the way I want to play. And we’re going to play this way no matter who is in front of us.”

On this evidence, Fulham will thrill, score plenty, and concede their share too.

Alonso’s first look, and a big call in goal

Alonso cut a calm figure on the touchline despite the drama behind his back four. He declined to single Sanchez out, but the mistakes were impossible to ignore.

“It’s not about talking about individuals, their situations. It’s about understanding what it takes,” he told Sky Sports. “For sure, the first goal we can do better than that. But it’s a process. It’s day one. And normally it’s easier to learn with three points.”

He’s right about that last part. Chelsea’s electric front three spared their goalkeeper and their new manager a very different kind of inquest.

There were other flashpoints. Enzo Fernandez, introduced on 65 minutes for Romeo Lavia, was met by loud boos from the home fans after his World Cup antics for Argentina against England. Palmer, after telling the bench he needed to come off and pulling up mid-dribble, was replaced by Estevao on 82 minutes, a sharp reminder of how fragile Chelsea’s attacking balance could be if he’s missing for any length of time.

Still, when the whistle went, the story belonged to that front line and a manager whose first Premier League taste came wrapped in bedlam and three points.

If this is what Alonso’s Chelsea look like on day one – devastating in attack, vulnerable at the back, utterly watchable – what happens when the chaos is finally under control?