Xabi Alonso Backs Cole Palmer to Shine at Chelsea

Cole Palmer has heard all the doubts. The numbers, the minutes, the missed World Cup. Now his new manager believes that chapter is closed.

Xabi Alonso insists the Chelsea playmaker has finally shaken off the groin problems that wrecked his campaign and left him a shadow of the player who lit up his first two seasons at Stamford Bridge.

“Cole is determined to enjoy his football,” Alonso said. “He wants to be fit. He wants to feel healthy. He wants to have a good connection with the players around him.

“I've said that if we have this Cole and we are able to reach him and he feels that flow in the game and that he connects well with the players, I'm sure that his level is top class, world class I would say, and that he will have a great season.”

From stalled season to clean slate

Palmer’s 2025-26 Premier League season never really got going. He managed 26 league appearances and 10 goals, respectable on paper but far from the explosive influence he had previously shown in blue.

The turning point came early. In August, he was pulled from the starting lineup shortly before kick-off in Chelsea’s 5-1 win away at West Ham, the groin issue flaring at the worst possible time.

From there, the rhythm disappeared. He featured only twice more in the league before December. Once he did return, he was on the pitch regularly enough – missing just two league matches from that point – but the spark was missing. His movement looked restricted, his creativity blunted, as a misfiring Chelsea side limped to a 10th-place finish.

Thomas Tuchel, then in charge of England, went public in March, revealing Palmer had been unable to fully extend his groin after the injury. The problem cost him a place in Tuchel’s World Cup squad and handed him something he had not experienced for years: a summer without competitive football.

This time, that break may prove priceless.

Alonso: ‘He’s gone through it, now he’s learned’

Ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League opener at Fulham on Monday night, Alonso was asked if Palmer’s physical issues were finally behind him.

“Yes,” he replied. No hesitation.

“I think that sometimes you need to go through a difficult moment with an injury or whatever to learn from that.

“I think that Cole has gone through a difficult period with the injury, and now he's working really hard to have the prevention not to have to feel those symptoms.

“Since the first day, he's been working really hard to avoid that.”

Alonso’s message is clear: the hard part is done. The focus now is on what Palmer can be when his body stops holding him back.

The 24-year-old, once again, is being talked about as a central figure rather than a medical concern. Fit, fresh, and with a manager publicly calling him “world class”, he steps into a new season with expectation, not excuses.

New faces, new energy

Palmer will not be alone in trying to reset Chelsea’s story. The club are ready to roll out several of their summer signings in the west London derby at Craven Cottage.

Defender Maxence Lacroix, forward Morgan Rogers and midfielder Marco Palestra are all available and in line for debuts, adding fresh competition and new combinations around Palmer in the final third.

Alonso wants that “flow” back in Chelsea’s play. Palmer, finally free of the injury that dragged him down, has the chance to be the one who sets the tempo.