Xabi Alonso's Confidence in Cole Palmer's Return to Form at Chelsea
Cole Palmer has his body back. Now, Xabi Alonso wants him to get his football back as well.
The Chelsea manager insists the groin issues that wrecked Palmer’s campaign are behind him and believes a fully fit, fully free Palmer can return to the devastating levels of his early Stamford Bridge years.
“Cole is determined to enjoy his football,” Alonso said. “He wants to be fit. He wants to feel healthy. He wants to have a good connection with the players around him.
“I've said that if we have this Cole and we are able to reach him and he feels that flow in the game and that he connects well with the players, I'm sure that his level is top class, world class I would say, and that he will have a great season.”
From stalled season to clean slate
Last season never really got going for Palmer. He managed 26 Premier League appearances and 10 goals – respectable numbers on paper, but a clear drop from the standards he had set in his first two years at the club.
The problems started in August. Named in the XI for Chelsea’s 5-1 win away at West Ham, he was withdrawn shortly before kick-off. The groin issue that followed cost him almost the entire first three months of the campaign and, even when he returned, he never looked quite right.
At times he moved as if something inside still tugged back. His mobility looked restricted, his usual sharp creativity dulled. The fluency in his game – that easy glide between the lines, the disguise on the final pass – rarely appeared.
Thomas Tuchel made the situation painfully clear in March, admitting Palmer had been unable to fully extend his groin after the injury. The numbers backed it up: he featured only twice more in the league before December and, although he missed just two league matches after that, he could not drag himself back to his previous level. Chelsea limped to 10th.
The dip had international consequences. Tuchel left him out of England’s World Cup squad, a brutal call for a 24-year-old who had looked destined to be a tournament lock not long before.
There was one upside. For the first time since 2022, Palmer had a summer without competitive football. No tournament. No late-season push through pain. Just time to heal.
“He’s been working really hard to avoid that”
Alonso is convinced that painful stretch has changed Palmer – and not just physically.
“I think that sometimes you need to go through a difficult moment with an injury or whatever to learn from that,” the Chelsea boss said.
“I think that Cole has gone through a difficult period with the injury, and now he's working really hard to have the prevention not to have to feel those symptoms.
“Since the first day, he's been working really hard to avoid that.”
The message is clear: Palmer’s issues are not being managed, they’re being left behind. Alonso was asked directly whether he believes the injury troubles are now in the past.
“Yes,” he replied, without hesitation.
For Chelsea, that answer matters. A fully fit Palmer gives Alonso a different dimension in the final third – someone who can knit attacks together, find angles others don’t see, and still carry a goal threat of his own.
New season, new faces, old expectations
Chelsea open their Premier League season on Monday night at Craven Cottage against Fulham, a west London derby that will also serve as a first look at Alonso’s reshaped squad.
Summer signings Maxence Lacroix, Morgan Rogers and Marco Palestra are all available and in line for debuts. They arrive to add steel, energy and invention to a side that misfired badly last term.
But amid the fresh faces, Palmer’s story feels pivotal. If Alonso really does unlock the “world class” version he talks about, Chelsea’s attack suddenly looks very different – not just on paper, but on the pitch where it counts.
The injuries are gone. The slate is clean. Now it’s down to Palmer to turn a manager’s conviction into a season that matches the description.
