Gary Neville has been critical of Chelsea star Cole Palmer for his post-match interaction with Pep Guardiola after the Blues were beaten 3-1 at Manchester City.
Noni Madueke scored to put Chelsea ahead early, taking full advantage of a mistake by Abdukodir Khusanov, but that was before City scored three — from Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden. The result hurt Chelsea’s bids to cement a Champions League qualifying spot and extended their winless streak on the road to four games (two draws, two losses).
While Palmer’s City player colleague struggled to influence proceedings, he managed just one shot (0.07 xG) and one chance created, despite completing a team-high 14 final-third passes. At full-time, he was spotted chatting and smiling with Guardiola — a move Neville feels will have upset Chelsea supporters.
Neville, speaking on Sky Sports, said: “Cole, you’re being played here. You didn’t do enough on the field in the second half. Chelsea supporters who were up from London today deserve better than that — they don’t want to see you grinning with the opposition manager.”
The hesitation in Neville’s analysis came from the optics of the interaction, as he acknowledged Palmer is a great talent but implied Guardiola’s actions could have been intentional. “There was just something about it that didn’t feel right,” he added.
