£58m Chelsea star one of the most underrated in the league claims academy teammate

Cole Palmer has picked out a player he’s known since his academy days as among the most underrated in the league.

Cole Palmer’s interview with Sky Sports ahead of the televised game against Sunderland this weekend produced some interesting content.

His pick for his tam’s most underrated player was Romeo Lavia, the midfielder who finally completed his first competitive games for Chelsea last week.

“Because no one knows how good he actually is,” Palmer explained when pushed on why he thought the Belgian was underrated.

“Obviously, I played with him at Manchester City, so maybe I might have a bias towards him, but he’s so good.”

“I think he can [be one of the best midfielders in the league] this season if he stays fit.”

Lavia may be needed tomorrow for a third start in a row. Jordan Henderson had a virus and Moises Caicedo also missed at least one training session this week.

It feels almost certain that Lavia starts ahead of one of them. That gives him a great chance to keep building minutes and momentum for the first time in his Chelsea career. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of expecting too much from him, but we’re really excited to see how good he can get if he keeps playing.

Cole had an interesting pick in another category too – he named a half forgotten winger as Chelsea’s most skilful player.

Xabi Alonso’s press conference yesterday had updates on a number of injured players, including Jorrel Hato.

Xabi Alonso insisted that Wesley Fofana is more focused now, and should be in line to show some improved form in the weeks and months to come.