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The Blues decided to leave Palmer out of their squad for the group stages, hoping to balance his workload after a breakthrough first full year of Premier League football was rewarded with a place in England’s setup for Euro 2024.
Heavy favourites for the competition, Chelsea showed more than enough class to breeze through the initial phase, picking up a maximum 18 points en route to scoring 26 goals and conceding just five.
The competition was largely used by Enzo Maresca to give his fringe players in the Premier League regular minutes, maintaining the match sharpness of the likes of Christopher Nkunku among others.
Chelsea have now been given the opportunity to add new players to their Conference League squad – Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei and Joao Felix are all out after leaving the club – and Palmer is included alongside Chalobah, who was recalled from a loan spell at Crystal Palace in January, and new arrival Amougou.
“We played some games without Cole, but Cole is something extra that you need,” Maresca said of Palmer’s omission at the time. “We also need to think a bit to protect some players. They need that. There is a reason behind it and I think Cole needs to be protected.”
While Palmer has been well looked after and is yet to suffer any injury setbacks, the same can’t be said for Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia, who again miss out after not being included for the first phase. The former has struggled with various fitness problems after joining from Leicester City in a huge £70m transfer, while the latter has damaged his hamstring on four separate occasions over the past two seasons.
Lavia spent six months out of action last season and has missed over a dozen games this term – a doubly frustrating …
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