Mauricio Pochettino will be hoping Enzo Fernandez can continue his rich vein of form when Chelsea face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium this weekend.
Enzo Fernandez has heaped praise on Cole Palmer following Chelsea's 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Monday night. The former Manchester City midfielder dragged the Blues back into the top half of the Premier League table with two finely-crafted assists in the dying embers of the game.
Jefferson Lerma fired the Eagles ahead in the first-half with a brilliant strike from range before Chelsea, who looked revitalised after the break, found an equaliser through Conor Gallagher. The Cobham graduate doubled his tally shortly into stoppage time, giving the west Londoners the lead.
Just minutes later, Chelsea caught Palace outnumbered at the back and Fernandez put the final nail in the coffin. After the game, Palmer celebrated the victory with a slideshow of pictures on Instagram, which he captioned: "Till the end [two letter A emojis]."
The 21-year-old's post eclipsed over 100,000 likes in less than 12 hours, with hundreds of supporters flooding the comment section to show their support. One message from Fernandez stood out – the Argentina international wrote: "What a player [fire emoji]."
His comment chalked up over 4,000 likes in just a few hours. Palmer has proven to be an excellent signing for Chelsea despite arriving on deadline day in the summer after the Blues missed out on Michael Olise.
Late into the window, the west Londoners' co-sporting directors took a huge risk and, without consulting Pochettino, raced to sign the England international from Manchester City. Upon his arrival, the Chelsea boss was asked for his thoughts on his new signing.
Pochettino insisted that the move was down to Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley. The 51-year-old said: "I think the sporting director and the owner of course, but the sporting director it was his idea to add him to the squad. I think he’s fit for the project. Talented player, of course."
Chelsea haven't looked back since, with Palmer proving to be an incredible acquisition. Palmer has impress Pochettino so much since joining that he's earned comparisons to Real Madrid icon Angel Di Maria.
Speaking to TNT Sports in December, the former Tottenham boss said: "In the position that he plays, and because he's a left-footer and because he has some similarities and the quality, he's a potential Angel Di Maria.
"Angel is a world champion, he was in Paris [Saint-Germain] with us, and is an amazing player. He [Palmer] has the capacity and the potential to be close to him, with time. He's still far away, but this type of player that can link, can be a playmaker, have the capacity to score, assist, it's this type of player like Angel.
"But of course he's performing really well from day one, he's adapted very well to the club, to the team-mates, to Chelsea life, and yes it's amazing, because always you expect the player can perform well, but he's doing excellent."
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