Chelsea have left Cole Palmer out of their Conference League squad and that really does make Arsenal look great. Somehow.
How Cole Palmer becomes an Arsenal issue
It takes some special kind of Simone Biles-level mental gymnastics to see the news that Chelsea have understandably left Cole Palmer (and Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana, but let’s face it they’re not featuring in too many headlines) out of their Conference League squad to face Gent, Noah, Astana and three other teams that the Blues really should beat in their sleep, and conclude: Well, haven’t Arsenal done very well indeed.
And yet that’s what the impressively be-leotarded Tom Canton managed for football.london as he scratched around for an Arsenal opinion piece in a bleak international fortnight.
Arsenal transfer policy vindicated after £1.3bn Chelsea decision costs Enzo Maresca key player
The ‘£1.3bn Chelsea decision’ is to spend a whole lot of money on a big old squad that means they can afford to leave out Palmer, Lavia and Fofana from their Conference League squad.
And this apparently ‘vindicates’ Arsenal having a smaller squad that means they don’t have to leave players out of their Champions League squad.
The smarter amongst you will have worked out that the Conference League is very different from the Champions League and thus the two cannot be compared; there is no way that Palmer, Lavia and Fofana would have been the players missing out on a place in the squad if they were playing in Europe’s elite competition.
This is apples and oranges territory and we will leave you to work out which is which.
Chelsea announced their squad for the UEFA Conference League league phase where they will face six teams from a range of European countries giving Enzo Maresca a tricky decision with the wealth of options available to him. Mikel Arteta meanwhile is working with a much smaller group and on Wednesday announced their A-list for the Champions League which even had room for the likes of Kieran Tierney and young goalkeeper Tommy Setford.
They ‘even’ had room for literally their third-choice goalkeeper. Only naming two goalkeepers would have been a brave choice but still, well done Arsenal and that really is vindication.
The big news from the Blues’ list was the absence of several key players, most notably Cole Palmer. Both Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia, two players who have suffered repetitive injury issues during their time in west London, have also been left out of the squad.
There is space however for some younger, lesser-known players such as Josh Acheampong, Tyrique George and Kiano Dyer.
Well that’s a gotcha. Though those are players on the Chelsea B list that don’t have to be named at all. Should Arsenal have named their B list, we would have seen Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and others. So that’s some false equivalence right there.
On the surface, it makes some degree of sense. In short and with respect to their league phase opponents, Chelsea should be comfortably progressing into the knockout rounds of the competition next year.
On the surface and also when you dive a little deeper, it makes some degree of sense. And you know what else? It’s really got f*** all to do with Arsenal.
And a Manchester City issue
‘Chelsea and Cole Palmer have just made Pep Guardiola point about Man City players perfectly’ – Manchester Evening News.
They really have.
A hint of nonsense
Elsewhere on football.london, they are eking yet more content out of a Chelsea squad announcement:
Enzo Maresca drops Chelsea transfer hint regarding £32m forgotten duo amid Cole Palmer omission
The £32m ‘forgotten duo’ are Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei, who have been included in that Conference League squad. So what’s the ‘transfer hint’?
football.london understands that both midfielders were listed for loan or sale in the summer transfer window but will both now remain at the club.
And Mediawatch understands that the transfer window has now closed and they have f*** all choice.
Palming him off
The Sun are definitely keeping things in perspective:
COLE PALMER could miss out on a possible European trophy this season because of the workload facing young stars.
Chelsea have taken the dramatic step to leave their best player out of their squad for this season’s Uefa Conference League in order to rest him.
It would be ‘dramatic’ if they couldn’t just, well, add him in January if they get through.
Zizou dodgy
But obviously the real grift is in Erik ten Hag sack stories, which brings the Mirror unashamedly (we presume) here:
