THE latest episode of the Cole Palmer (£6m) show was one of the best yet.
Chelsea’s talisman banked 25 points against Tottenham on Sunday to underline his Dream Team pedigree in emphatic style.
Who needs European fixtures when you’re this good?[/caption]
Granted, he was helped out by brainless fouls from Spurs midfielders Yves Bissouma (£2.5m) and Pape Matar Sarr (£3m) that gifted the visitors two penalties at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But Palmer’s spot-kicks, the second of which was an audacious Panenka, only told half the story of his performance.
The 22-year-old was credited with a ‘fantasy assist’ by stats providers Opta for his decisive hand in Enzo Fernandez’s (£4.3m) goal, which put the Blues into the lead in the second half.
As if three goal involvements weren’t enough, Palmer also earned five bonus points, the maximum available for a single game, via four successful dribbles, four fouls won, three accurate crosses, one interception and a pass completion rate of 79%.
When all was said and done, Palmer finished the weekend as the top performer of Gameweek 14 by a wide margin of ten points – Bryan Mbeumo (£4m) is his closest rival at this stage on 15 points.
A touch of class[/caption]
More broadly, the former Manchester City youngster now averages 11.1 points-per-game this season, the highest average among all players.
Palmer is evidently a special talent and so the question has to be asked, should Dream Team managers break one of the game’s golden rules to accommodate him?
Generally speaking, every gaffer should endeavour to target as many fixtures as possible in search of plentiful points.
This being one of Dream Team’s most prominent commandments for the simple reason that more games equals more point-scoring opportunities.
Palmer has scored 11 goals and provided seven assists this season[/caption]
If Player A averages 8.5 points-per-game and Player B averages 6.2 points-per-game then the former is probably the better option in a single game shootout.
However, if Player A is due to fulfil three fixtures across the next three Gameweeks while Player B is scheduled to play five times then the latter is likely to produce more points over the given time period.
It doesn’t always work out like this because there are other factors to consider but the logic is clear.
Prior the start of this season, it appeared as if Palmer would be an essential asset as the prospect of him supplementing his league returns with Thursday night points courtesy of Conference League mismatches was hugely appealing.
However, Enzo Maresca has opted to manage his star player’s workload.
Palmer wasn’t even included in Chelsea’s European squad for the league phase and he didn’t feature in the Carabao Cup prior the club’s exit at the hands of Newcastle.
This approach has pay dividends as the league regulars have stayed fresh while the second-string players have enjoyed themselves in the Conference League.
While Maresca’s rotation policy has set the West Londoners on course for a successful season, Dream Team bosses have been left to fantasise about what could have been had Palmer also been strutting his stuff in the additional competitions.
He boasts the highest points-per-game average but since he’s played just 15 games, he’s currently behind Mohamed Salah (£7.6m), Erling Haaland (£8.5m) and Bukayo Saka (£6.7m) in terms of overall points because those three stars have all featured in at least 20 games this campaign.
However, the fact Palmer is fourth overall despite having only been active in the league is truly remarkable.
Many of the elite Dream Team gaffers tend to ignore such players entirely because of their limited schedules but Palmer breaks the mould and this Gameweek is a perfect example.
There are seven relevant European fixtures happening in midweek but how many of the players involved will match Palmer’s score of 25 from the weekend?
Son Heung-min (£5.2m) is the closest player in which a chance but he’ll have to bank 13 points away to Rangers on Thursday night just to draw level with Palmer.
Maresca is managing Palmer’s workload this season[/caption]
Gaffers should continue to target the additional competitions but if there was ever a player to break a golden rule for it’s Chelsea’s main man.
And it goes without saying that Palmer will be a must-have asset from Gameweek 16 when the focus will be purely on the Premier League over Christmas and New Year.
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