Can't deny the lad is talented but I think his record on paper flatters to deceive a bit and he wouldn't be producing anywhere near the same levels if he wasn't a big fish in a small pond. Adds further weight to the argument that Palmer had to leave to get even remotely close to the numbers he's produced this season. 23 goals in 38 games looks fantastic for a young lad but let's break the stats down some more.
Of the 23 goals he's scored, 10 of them have been penalties. He wouldn't be taking penalties at City because Haaland is our main man for those, and if literally anyone else took penalties at Chelsea he wouldn't have them on his record. So that comes down to 13 goals in 38 games. And of the 13 goals he's scored from open play this season, seven of them have been scored against teams currently in the bottom six.
So that leaves him on six goals this season that aren't penalties and haven't been scored against the bottom six.
And of those six goals scored from open play against teams this season, three of them have come against teams in the top half of the Premier League. In fact, he's scored as many goals from open play against Championship sides (Leicester x2 and Middlesbrough) as he has against teams in the PL top 10.
So when you break it down and actually look into the stats, he's scored a grand total of three goals this season from open play against proper quality Premier League sides. Would we be happy with that kind of performance from him this season? I don't think so. Considering he's less than a month older than Doku... meh.
And considering literally everything runs through Palmer for Chelsea, and considering he's allowed to do whatever he wants and play in whatever role he likes, is that enough? Would we be paying attention to him if he'd never played for us? Can you imagine what Foden's record would be like if he was part of this Chelsea team?
I think Palmer has a good future ahead of him but you saw last night that he's basically the star of an underperforming Chelsea team. Whether it's with Chelsea or another club, when he takes that next step up he won't be allowed to push players away from taking penalties, not every chance will fall to him, and not every player will be looking to pass to him. For those reasons I just don't think it would have ever worked for him at City.
I sort of wish him well, I suppose? I would have liked us to have kept onto him for this season just to see how he developed. But I think if he'd stayed we'd still be wondering why his development was tracking behind Foden at the same age. We offered him the chance to stay and fight for his place but he didn't fancy being a small fish in a big pond and Chelsea came in with £50m for a lad who'd started 13 professional games in career, so he left.