Welcome to the Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a mix of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:
⭐ Palmer second only for Salah? 🔥 Murillo's shameful long shots🔵 Van Nistelrooy's Leicester -Sling
FODEN Face-Off forever improved Palmer
Cole Palmer will hope to show Manchester City what could be when he returned to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. The 22-year-old, a revelation for Chelsea after his arrival of £ 42.5 million last season, continues to take effect.
Chelsea leads the game two points for City in the table, a 20-point swing from last season that can be partially attributed to the contrasting fortunes of their No. 10S.
Although Phil Foden only only find a form after an indifferent start of the campaign, Palmer went on where he had gone, the goals and help them stream to the extent that only Mohamed Salah has a higher combined total since his move to Chelsea.
Foden of course won a PFA and FWA Player of the Year -Dubbel last year. He also scored four goals in his last two Premier League performances, against Brentford and Ipswich.
In the course of the past year and a half, however, Palmer comes comfortably at the top as a scorer and as a maker.
Their meeting ensures an intriguing subplot Given the presence of Foden was one of the reasons for the exit of his fellow academy. The exploits of Palmer This term are demonstrably even more impressive than the attention of last season that he can be seen.
Palmer is now marked in most games. It is polluted 2.1 times per 90 minutes compared to just 0.9 times last season. “Nobody really knew a lot about him when he came, so it was a freestyle for him,” said Paul Merson last month. “Now he's the big boy. Teams try to stop him, but they can't.
“That shows you how good he is.”
Palmer's solution, implemented using head coach Enzo Maresca, has been to take positions right towards the front line. He is nominal the no. 10 of Chelsea, which was usually used from the right last season, but he is encouraged to drive where the space is.
It naturally helps that he apparently remains insensitive to pressure, a feature that has been characterized by his stopping time penalty in the 4-4 draw of Chelsea against his former club in Stamford Bridge in the past term and one that keeps shining on his perfect place kick Record.
He has embraced a completely different level of responsibility for Foden, good for 46 percent of the goals and has been assisting Chelsea since his arrival, compared to Foden's 25 percent for Manchester City. That responsibility is also not limited to scoring or making.
Neither Palmer did neither in Chelsea's 3-1 victory over Wolves on Monday evening football and yet Maresca called his performance one of his best. “He was there to ask the ball at a difficult moment for the team in the second half,” he said. “He was the leader of the team.”
It is more proof of a player who adapts, evolves and finds ways to get better and better. Saturday's meeting with his former club and his former teammate Foden is an opportunity to show them his progress from first hand.
Maverick Murillo is worth celebrating
Nottingham Forest supporters had more reasons to celebrate this week, because Murillo and Chris Wood signed new contracts on the city. The couple have been key figures in the remarkable transformation on the side under head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
Murillo in particular was a pleasure to watch since his arrival of Corinthians at the start of last season. An avid drib that loves a shot from Long Range, the Maverick tendencies of the Brazil International are rare in the modern game and rarer from a center-back.
His player-of-the-match performance in the recent 1-1 draw with leaders Liverpool summarized the width of his offer.
Murillo was defensive empire, his total of 17 clearance the highest by each player in a Premier League match throughout the season. But he also took every chance that he came forward.
In the first half there was a pounding shot from 35 meters out that just past the right -hand post of Alisson Fluit. In the second he had an attempt blocked in the vicinity of the halfway.
Last season he tried his happiness of even further, and took two shots from within his own half, one of which was measured against Luton in March, 78 meters from the goal and a panic saving required of a back-pedling Thomas Kaminski, He pushed it over the bar.
His ambition seems to be on the field and it was also clearly in conversation with him shortly after his arrival in England last season, when he stated that Forest could reach “unimaginable heights”.
It felt imaginative, but here they were. Two -thirds in the campaign, Forest is third, level at points with second placed arsenal. His new contract suggests that he believes that the best should come.
Van Nistelrooy under pressure
Ruud van Nistelrooy takes his wrestling Leicester side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday and is booed and taunted with cries of “You don't know what you are doing” by fans during their 2-0 loss for Fulham in the King Power Stadium in the King Power Stadium at the King Power Stadium.
The catalyst was the withdrawal of playmaker Bilal El Khannouss when Leicester left behind in the second half. Van Nistelrooy chose not to explain the decision after the game, but it was made to look even worse by the second goal of Fulham, minutes later.
The term of office of the Dutchman started well, with Leicester who defeated West Ham 3-1 in his opening match at the beginning of December. But since then they have not won. The defeat against Fulham was their seventh in a row in the Premier League. Performances have become worse, not better.
Steve Cooper was not a popular appointment given his ties with Nottingham Forest, but supporters fear that the club has damaged their chances to stay up, instead of helping them, with their choice of replacement and it is easy to understand why.
Van Nistelrooy is of course a difficult hand. The team is clearly too little and the progress to strengthen it has been slowly in the January transfer window. But the mood in the stands will only worsen if they see more of the same against Spurs on Sunday.
Live Radar: What's on Sky this weekend?
Man City host Chelsea for the Saturday Night Football fixture, with cover starting at Sky Sports Premier League and the main event from 5 pm prior to the kick-off of 5.30 pm.
Super Sunday sees Crystal Palace and Brentford against each other in the early game, start at 2 p.m., with Aston Villa taking on the later kick -off of Graham Potter at 4.30 p.m. The coverage of that double header starts at Sky Sports Premier League and the main event at 1 p.m.
Read last week's radar column
Myles Lewis-Skelly's striking turnout for Arsenal was the focus of the column last week. There was also a look at the figures that the Savinho of Manchester City showed as the most effective open play maker of the Premier League.
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