"Frustration is starting to come out" – Pundit notices Chelsea star annoyed at his teammates

Yesterday at 08:45 AM

Chelsea's nascent title charge has faltered after a draw and a loss, and it's amazing how quickly the narrative changes.

From "can the Blues win the league", the hot takes have pivoted to "are there potential problems in the camp?", at least on sensational outlets like TalkSport.

Troy Deeney was wheeled out today, and he noted that he had seen some tensions between star player Cole Palmer and some of his teammates in the frustrating loss to Fulham:

"The one thing that I noticed yesterday was Cole Palmer's frustration is starting to come out with the decision-making of people. And when they're trying to win games, it's still really slow and passive, but he's trying to be like, think for yourselves, just try and win.

"I wonder how he's going to deal with teams now putting two and three on him, because that's what's going to start happening. How does he adapt, not getting more and more frustrated."

It's certainly true that the pressure on the team to perform has actually gone up as they rise up the table rather than down. A dropped point isn't a big deal until you're in a title race, when it suddenly is.

Palmer also showed frustration against Everton

We noticed something similar at the end of the Everton game – as his team desperately battled to deliver one final ball into the box to try and steal a win, the final whistle went and the attacker dropped to his haunches.

It was certainly a sign of frustration at an amazing winning run ending, but it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, just frustration at the result. His comments after the game didn't seem very pointed either.

Palmer, for all his talent, seems a great team player, and someone who just loves the game. Like all top players he will certainly feel frustrated when the rest of the team don't live up to his magic, but we've not seen any tensions with specific teammates coming out any more than normal recently.