Chelsea is celebrating a big birthday tomorrow – but sometimes it feels like it's more than just the club that is 120 years old.
Despite the fact that they had by far the youngest team in the Premier League, she sweated and worked their way to victory against a team that has now lost six games in the spider and runs through the relegation door with a breakneck speed.
Three points put them back in the top four and guaranteed Champions League football next season if they stay there.
But a hard -fought victory over one of the worst teams in the division with a goal from the left side is hardly the stuff to activate champagne corks for tomorrow's birthday.
And it is even more a party poop than the frustrating run of Golden Boy Colmer for the goal hit a new low point when he missed his first Premier League fine.
The poster boy of Stamford Bridge was also immersed with another 17 minutes and dredged straight through the tunnel into an apparent grump when he was removed.
It might do to him a bit good to feel some tough love of Baas Enzo Maresca, because he strives to become a consistent power and not just a one -time superstar.
New England -Baas Thomas Tuchel calls this first team this Friday and Palmer must be recorded.
But recent versions suggest that he still has a way to become the star who the fans of Chelsea and England want him to be so desperate.
This was the third victory in a row for Maresca, but he knows that his team is far from the completed article.
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With more difficult matches that appear against Arsenal, Tottenham and even Brentford in the coming weeks, he needs everyone on a song for the run-in.
Fifth place is perhaps enough to seal a return to Champions League football, but the Chelsea manager cannot gamble on that.
Especially when it could have been so much more comfortable.
Palmer went down with what VAR described as 'minimal contact' within a few minutes after kick -off and Chelsea an early penalty was denied.
In 20 minutes they received a decision from REF Tim Robinson when Jadon Sancho was activated by Viktor Kristiansen, with at least argument from the Danish defender.
Palmer is normally fatal from the spot. He had scored 15 out of 15 for Club and Country before this match.
But for the first time in his short but moved Premier League career, his precision of 12 meters left him.
He rolled a fairly tame shot on his right so that keeper Mads Hermansen could hit the time to hit the deck and push the shot away for a corner.
The fluff currently summarizes the mood of Palmer. He went from main shooter and 'ice -cold Palmer' to indecisive and frustrated.
Now even the dead ball situation without opposition players.
But it's not like countless others in this team get on the board while striker Nicolas Jackson is recovering from a hamstring injury
Of the seven changes Boss Maresca made of the narrow conference league win at Copenhagen, Pedro Neto Pedro Neto had to return as a center or 'False Nine' in this case.
It is not surprising that Chelsea had difficulty making an impact, even on a team in a head lung course immediately back to the championship next season.
The header of Christopher Nunku who sailed wide was just about the only other attempt to bother Hermanden – and it didn't bother him much either.
There were more grunts and moans of the crowd during the break than you hear when a pensioner in Chelsea gets out of bed in the morning.
Speaking of this, the club paraded old soldiers Dennis Wise, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ron Harris before the kick -off as part of the festivities.
Bang in the afternoon sun and it could easily have been one of those old boys who still played, so it was pedestrian pace.
What threat they did on Leicester's goal either fell through the road or was left by Stout defensive by Conor coady and Luke Thomas in particular.
It was no surprise that Chelsea finally had to make the breakthrough from outside the box when Cucurella appeared again in his new role when Left Back became Midfield Maestro.
This inverted tactic used by Maresca has now delivered four Premier League goals for the Big Haired Spaniard since mid-December.
And just when his manager needed another favor, curly tops, picking up a diagonal ball handed out about 20 meters and drill a shot over the face of the goal and in.
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