Saturday wouldn’t have been a worse day for Chelsea as they lost to Manchester United in all sorts of controversy early on.
After less than five minutes, the Bruce was left without a departure goalkeeper as United forward Brian Mbeumo picked up a straight red card due to denying a clear opportunity for scoring on a slow tackle. Coach Enzo Maresca was forced to send to Philip Jorgensen at the expense of Estevao Willian, who also retracted forward Pedro Neto to create a path for defender Tosin Adalabioyo.
Things got significantly worse in the 21 minutes when Chelsea’s undoubtedly best player, Cole Palmer, was kicked out with an injury.
At the end of the first half, Casemiro’s recklessness on the yellow card made things even in terms of player count, but at that point, Chelsea were already down 2-0 and could only respond with a single goal.
There have been concerns about Palmer, who could have had surgery to rule him out for a long time. He is clearly not certain, but Maresca doesn’t believe it will.
“Medical staff, they didn’t mention me about the surgery until today.”
Enzo Maresca is the latest news on Cole Palmer fitness pic.twitter.com/4rne835par
– Hyters TV (@hayterstv) September 22, 2025