Cole Palmer's Premier League Resurgence: A Second Chance for England
Cole Palmer is ripping through Premier League defences again, and the question hangs in the air every time he glides past another full-back: what on earth was Thomas Tuchel thinking last summer?
The evidence keeps piling up. The little first-time flick into Joao Pedro against Fulham, a touch so casual it bordered on arrogant. The cool, drilled finish under Bernd Leno. The sudden burst of pace and 20-yard wrap into the far corner past Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen. The clever drift to the edge of Hull’s back line before darting round the outside and rolling another chance on a plate for Joao Pedro.
Watch that version of Palmer and it feels almost absurd that he watched the World Cup from home. But the truth is simpler, and harsher: that player barely existed last season.
The cruel dip that cost him a World Cup
Palmer’s numbers tell the story. Forty-two goal contributions for Chelsea in 2023/24. Thirty-two more in 2024/25. Then the crash: just 14 in 2025/26, only two in his final 12 games of the campaign.
His year never really recovered from the groin injury that disrupted the start of it. Tuchel didn’t ignore this Cole Palmer; he barely got to see him. Not the one who had put four past Brighton the previous season. Not the one who tore PSG apart in the Club World Cup final a year earlier, in that New Jersey stadium now etched into World Cup folklore.
Had that Palmer been on show in the spring, he would almost certainly have been on the plane to North America. Tuchel even tried to give him a lifeline in March, picking him for the international break. But the England manager watched him drift through a 1-0 defeat to Japan at Wembley, a ghost of himself. The first touch that used to stick to his boot had gone. The shoulders slumped. He moved like a man who’d gone upstairs and forgotten why.
So when the squad announcement came and his name wasn’t there, the outcry belonged more to memory than reality.
Did Tuchel ever waver?
“No,” he said when asked if he regretted leaving Palmer out. “I was very happy with the squad selection. I had a lot of sleepless nights [beforehand]. But I had not one sleepless night about our selection because I was more than seven weeks with this group of players, and they were nothing but fantastic.”
Palmer 2.0
Now the landscape looks very different.
Palmer is back in the England squad for the 2026/27 Nations League games against Spain, Croatia and Czechia. The numbers are back. So is the menace.
“He has his numbers back,” Tuchel said. “He has assists back. He has decisive goals back. So that's why he's in the squad, and I think he has a point to prove.”
You can see it in his body language. That loose, almost lazy sway as he prowls between the lines, scanning for a weak seam in the defence. The shoulder drop that sends a defender down the wrong road. Those short, sharp accelerations that contradict his languid frame.
There aren’t many footballers like him. The limbs look too long, the angles too sharp, yet everything stays in balance, like a stick insect with a grudge. He doesn’t fit the standard template of an elite No 10. That’s part of the appeal. His imagination has a different flavour, an “un-English” streak, the kind of on-the-hoof problem-solving that can unpick tight games at this level.
Tuchel had options. He chose Palmer.
Phil Foden, bright early in the season but sent off in the Manchester derby, didn’t make it. Fulham’s Joshua King came under serious consideration but stayed out. Morgan Gibbs-White, outstanding for Nottingham Forest and central to their survival, was left waiting again.
Gibbs-White was especially “close”, Tuchel admitted.
“We can see the form that Morgan is in and he ended the season very, very strongly, and was the key player for Forrest to not be relegated. We can see him stepping up now. But it makes no sense to nominate three, four, five No 10s. It just does not help anyone.”
Palmer has edged that battle for now. But Tuchel attached a clear warning label to the recall.
“It is one thing to be nominated, by the way, like with Cole, getting your ticket back in the squad,” he said. “But it's another thing to perform for England. Especially Cole, he needs to step up when he comes and needs to show these kind of numbers and these kind of performances to get his place, to keep his shirt, to justify the decision.”
The next step
This is the challenge that now stares Palmer in the face. For England, his record is modest: two goals and one assist in 14 appearances. He might point out that he has started only six of those games. The reality is simple: the shirt has never truly felt like his.
Now the conditions are different. He is fit. He is flying for his club. He is carrying the irritation of a missed World Cup and the fuel that comes with it.
That, Tuchel might argue, is exactly why there are no regrets. The version of Palmer now tormenting Premier League defences may be the product of that frustration, the space to reset, the sting of being told “not this time.”
“The quality of Cole Palmer, we don't need to talk about it,” Tuchel said. “But [he needs] to show it … There are steps to be taken. The first step is to be nominated. The second step is to fight and perform on the highest level for that shirt.”
The first step is done. The second now waits in the glare of Spain, Croatia and Czechia. Palmer has his ticket back. The question is whether he’s ready to make the England No 10 role his permanent address.
