Cole Palmer involved in penalty-kick argument with Chelsea duo before scoring from spot vs Everton
Chelsea youngsters Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson were involved in a penalty conflict against Everton on Monday, April 15. The Blues were up 4-0 against the Toffees at home when Chelsea earned a penalty in the second half.
With regular penalty kick-taker Palmer limping off from a challenge, Madueke and Jackson were seen arguing over the ball in what looked like a heated debate between the players.
Confusion ensued as captain Conor Gallagher walked in to take the ball and hand it to Palmer. An angry Jackson walked away from the spot with Palmer stepping up and comfortably slotting it in to make it 5-0 for the Blues.
After the goal, Madueke could be seen encouraging Jackson to head up and celebrate with the rest of the team and congratulate Palmer. X handle AFC Ajax posted a screenshot of the image, giving their understanding of the situation.
They captioned the post:
NICOLAS JACKSON FURIOUS WITH COLE PALMER CLAIMING THE PENALTY!
The in-game commentators (via Hotstar) gave a different take on the story claiming that Jackson wanted to show support for Palmer by taking the ball away from Madueke in the build-up to the penalty kick. Regardless of what the flow of the story is, it was not the most professional commotion to display by the young Chelsea players.
Chelsea star Cole Palmer scores his fourth goal of the night against Everton
Cole Palmer opened the scoring on the night on the back of a brilliant build-up play with a left-footed curler. He scored the second with a tap-in header into an open goal. Palmer's third came through a Jordan Pickford error, which the Chelsea star curled in with his weak foot from 40 yards-odd out.
Jackson added Chelsea's fourth with a swift turn and finish to make it 4-0 before half-time. Palmer has 20 league goals for the Blues now, tying him in first place alongside Manchester City forward Erling Haaland in the race for the golden boot.
Chelsea currently lead the Premier League game 5-0 after 78 minutes, at the time of writing this piece.