Why Cole Palmer Will Be Allowed to Face Man Utd After Chelsea Red Card

Thanks to the quirk that red-card suspensions are carried across domestic competitions, Cole Palmer will serve his one-game ban in Chelsea’s midweek Carabao Cup clash with Liverpool, ensuring he won’t miss a single Premier League encounter.

Chelsea are up against Manchester United next Saturday and in need of an emphatic response to this weekend’s dismal defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur. Palmer may have collected the first red card of his senior career, but he wasn’t even Chelsea’s worst performer in a toothless 2–0 defeat to the club’s hated London rivals.

Stand-in goalkeeper Mike Penders punched the visitors in front with a disastrous own goal in the 77th minute, shortly before Palmer collected his second, entirely unnecessary, yellow card. Chelsea’s creative lynchpin had already been penalized for running into Mateus Fernandes—an act that could have warranted a red card on another day—which makes his decision to stand on Conor Gallagher’s ankle all the more unwise.

The quirk of the fixture list and the FA handbook has spared Palmer any Premier League absence, but he will sit out Chelsea’s next game: a daunting trip to Anfield.

Xabi Alonso will go up against his childhood friend and former youth team colleague when Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool host the fourth round Carabao Cup tie on Wednesday night. Chelsea have not won a game at Anfield in front of fans since 2018, when Eden Hazard inspired a Blues side managed by Maurizio Sarri to a Carabao Cup third round triumph. Unfortunately for Alonso, he won’t be able to call up Chelsea’s No. 10 this week.

Chelsea’s Fixtures

Wednesday, Oct. 28: Liverpool (A)—No Palmer

Saturday, Oct. 31: Man Utd (H)—Palmer available

Palmer Breaks Silence on Red Card

Palmer took to social media the morning after the night before to search for some forgiveness from Chelsea fans entirely unfamiliar with the sensation of losing to Spurs. “Not good enough by me,” he wrote on Instagram. “Live n learn. Apologies. On to the next.”

Alonso, who became the first Chelsea manager since Antonio Conte to lose a home game to Tottenham, refrained from piling on his playmaker. “I need to check the action to talk with Cole, but it is one to learn for the future for sure,” the manager offered up immediately after the match.

“I think that Cole, when he is focused on the game, when he is enjoying, and today after the 1–0, it is a moment to keep calm, a moment to keep mature and for everyone.”

This was Chelsea’s 11th red card across all competitions since the start of last season, not including one shown to former manager Enzo Maresca. Alonso had already identified ill discipline as an area in need of improvement before the red mist melted Palmer’s cold exterior.

“I think that if you are focused on what you have to do, you are prepared for what’s going on,” Alonso had warned. “Normally you don’t make that many mistakes and you don’t overreact to certain situations. For me, this is a fundamental part of the game: to have that emotional control, to deal with all this. The momentum is coming, [but] we keep calm, I don’t lose my head, and I don’t get stupid yellow cards, make stupid penalties. You need to prepare for football to have better control of that.”