Cole Palmer’s brilliant strike in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham on Thursday saw him set a new club record for the most Premier League goals in a single calendar year.
Midway through the first half, Palmer danced past three defenders before coolly finishing into the bottom corner, bringing his tally for the year to 26 Premier League goals. This broke the previous record of 25 goals held by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink since 2001.
Ironically, Hasselbaink was working as a pundit for Amazon Prime’s coverage of the match and shared his thoughts on seeing his long-standing record fall.
Get Instantly Update By: Joining Our Whatapps and Telegram Channel
“I’m an old man!” he joked. “This has stood for a long, long time. It was time for it to go. There’s no better player than Palmer to do it.”
However, Chelsea’s joy was short-lived as Fulham scored two late goals to claim a 2-1 win. Palmer reflected on the loss after the match, acknowledging that the team must learn from their mistakes.
“It’s football, it happens,” Palmer said. “We lost control for 20 minutes and they scored twice. We were in control for most of the game, but to lose at the end is tough. In the first half, we played well and controlled the game, creating quite a few chances.
“In the second half, we seemed to lose a bit of control. They’re a good transition team, they like to play direct, so we got caught in their game and paid the price.
“I don’t think we lost energy or intensity. As the manager said, we just lost control of the game and turned it into a type of game where they’re better than us. We need to manage the game better.”