Cole Palmer came under fire from Gary Neville because of his conversation with Pep Guardiola after the 3-1 defeat of Chelsea against Manchester City.
Chelsea had the chance to take five points ahead of their rivals for qualifying for the Champions League on Saturday and took a lead in the third minute when Noni Madueke benefited from an error by Abdukodir Khusanov.
For a long time, the blues were comfortable in second place and goals from Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden gave City a much needed victory in the top-four race.
After having won six of their first eight away games under Enzo Maresca (one draw, one loss), Chelsea has not succeeded in winning four times in a row (two equal games, two losses).
Their star Palmer was unusually quiet, tried only one shot with a value of 0.07 expected goals (XG) and only created one chance despite playing 14 passes of team height in the last third part.
They saw him talk full -time with Guardiola – who sold the English international after he could not have guaranteed him in a regular playing minutes in 2023 – and Neville thinks this might have annoyed Chelsea's supporters.
“I want to say something about Cole Palmer. At the end of the game he spoke with Pep Guardiola on the field and he smiled with him. Guardiola does that,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“Cole, you're played here, you didn't do enough on that field in the second half.
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“He is a great player, absolutely brilliant, but the Chelsea fans who traveled today, the 3,000 or 4,000 in that far corner, wanted better than that.
“They don't really want to see you talking to your opponent manager and smile at the end of the game. I am not old -fashioned here, but something is going on there.
“I thought:” Pep Guardiola plays against you here, “I know he managed him, but he didn't play him here and he sold him.
“I am not against having a conversation in. It is clear that he played for the manager. There is something that I thought was not good from the perspective of Cole Palmer.
“I know why Pep Guardiola did it, that's what Pep does, but if I had lost 3-1 out of the house and would have been just as disappointed as Cole Palmer … I would have expected more from him.”
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