Cole Palmer opened the match with a performance of the season to score four goals in the first half, as Chelsea defeated Brighton 4-2 on Saturday.
The youngest scorer on the day started his goal frenzy at the 21st minute with an equalizer for Chelsea. In 10 minutes Palmer got his hat-trick, slotting home a penalty and then came up with an exquisite free-kick into the roof of the net. Before the break, he was on hand again to score, this time from the perfect cross by Jadon Sancho.
Palmer is now the fifth player in Premier League history to score four goals in a single half – and the first to achieve that in the first half. He was almost doing it again as he hit the post and had another effort disallowed for offside. The second half was relatively early when Palmer almost scored for the fifth time but he shot wide with only the keeper to beat.
Georginio Rutter had put Brighton ahead after Chelsea had been unable to clear a loose ball in the penalty area. However, the display of skill by Palmer later wiped out the possibility of a Brighton upset after he scored an equalizer with Nicolas Jackson and scored from a penalty kick after Sancho was brought down.
Palmer also moved to within one penalty goal of setting a new record in the league for penalty kick scorers, having scored 10 goals without a single miss as Yaya Touré.
Brighton was able to score a consolation goal after a slip-up by Chelsea’s defense but before the half was up, Palmer scored his record eighth goal from a Sancho pass.
Chelsea had the chances to increase the lead even further in the second period of the game. Jackson had a shot cleared off the line as Palmer failed to equal the most goals scored in a single Premier league match.
Chelsea wins its fourth consecutive match and climbs up to the fourth rank on the English Premier League table below Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool.
In reaction to this, Chelsea’s manager was full of praise for Palmer stating that, “He’s a special and humble player. It is good to have scored four goals but he could have scored more showing that he wants to be better, which is good.
