You would usually call this a good season for penalties at Chelsea. After Monday night’s thumping of Everton Mauricio Pochettino’s team have been awarded 13 and scored 11. Cole Palmer has taken eight and scored them all, Noni Madueke is similarly faultless from his two attempts. Only Enzo Fernandez and Raheem Sterling have missed from 12 yards and both have also scored one too.
This omits the psychodrama which has enveloped the ritual on a number of occasions. In an otherwise flawless evening for the home side on Monday, there was another tiff about who should take the kick.
Cole Palmer was fouled with his team 4-0 up and Noni Madueke picked up the ball and stood over the spot. Captain Conor Gallagher ordered Madueke to surrender the ball to Palmer, passed it on himself, then Nicolas Jackson came steaming in, apparently to plead Madueke’s case. Palmer pushed him away, sent Jordan Pickford the wrong way and made it 5-0. Jackson had to be cajoled into celebrating the goal.
All of this seemed highly unnecessary given the scoreline and the generally upbeat mood. Perhaps Palmer should have declared on three goals for the night and donated his spot kick to his team-mate, but certainly the decision for him to take it should not have caused an internal ruction where it briefly seemed plausible that team-mates might come to blows.
This is not the first time this has happened this season, nor the second, nor even the third. Sterling grabbed the ball from Palmer against Leicester in the Cup and missed, Madueke pleaded for the right to take the spot kick which Palmer equalised with against Manchester United in the league earlier this month and Palmer and Sterling argued about the right taker against Arsenal in October. Again, Palmer scored.
Maybe one day Chelsea will learn the lesson which seems obvious to all neutral observers: just let Palmer handle it .
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