David James has questioned whether Cole Palmer’s return has ‘barely upset’ the Chelsea squad after they dropped more points within the Premier League.
The momentum that was built during a powerful run of form and last weekend’s encouraging draw with leaders Arsenal has all but disappeared after two poor results.
Enzo Maresca’s side suffered a shock 3-1 defeat to relegation-battlers Leeds United in midweek before a goalless draw with Bournemouth on Saturday.
Palmer was introduced from the bench for the ultimate half an hour at Elland Road before lasting 58 minutes at Bournemouth.
The 23-year-old has been probably the greatest players within the Premier League over the past two seasons but James has suggested his return can have ‘upset’ the rhythm of a Chelsea team who were getting used to playing without the England star.
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Discussing Chelsea’s title credentials, James told Stadium Astro: ‘Chelsea proved the opposite night against Leeds that they’re being hamstrung by the quantity of bookings and red cards they’re getting.
‘They don’t need that. I don’t know whether, just going off on a mad tangent here, the reintroduction of Cole Palmer into the squad has barely upset things.
‘But they need to have beat Arsenal and can have done if it wasn’t for those disciplinary issues.’
Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez didn’t appear overly dissatisfied after the goalless draw at Bournemouth.
‘Coming from a loss within the last game, we desired to redeem ourselves,’ he told Premier League Productions. ‘I believe we played well.
‘We kept a clean sheet and didn’t lose the sport. We take the purpose and go into the subsequent game needing three points.
‘Bournemouth are an ideal team. They’ve quite a lot of intensity and we needed to take care of that and see how the sport went after. We were capable of manage the sport.
‘We all know what our goal is and our quality. We’ve got to maintain going.’
Stamford Bridge boss Maresca, meanwhile, told BBC Sport: ‘I believe we lacked a little bit of quality within the last third, the last pass and the last shoot.
‘When you’re not capable of win it is crucial that you simply don’t lose so we’ll take the purpose.
‘I believe we controlled the sport after which within the last bit we missed the shoot, the pass and the cross. That may just occur.
‘For us it was one other clean sheet and we didn’t lose in order that is essential. We tried to win the sport. We had some probabilities. I said over and over it’s vital to not lose whenever you don’t win.
‘We missed a little bit of quality within the last third but we want to go again on Tuesday.’
On Palmer’s performance on the south coast, Maresca said: ‘He was good. After an extended time, he played for some minutes and now he needs to construct his physical condition.’
Chelsea, now fourth within the Premier League, face Atalanta within the Champions League on Tuesday before returning to domestic motion next weekend against Everton.
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