Chelsea star could now return early from injury to face Arsenal

Cole Palmer could potentially still return to action against Arsenal this weekend, despite Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca previously ruling it out.

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Speaking to the media last week, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca revealed that Cole Palmer had suffered an accident at home, picking up a toe injury that would leave him “not available for Saturday for sure, Barcelona for sure or Arsenal for sure”.

Yet the Chelsea coach has since changed his tune, confirming that Palmer is back training with a special protective boot, and no longer ruling out the possibility he could be playing again by the weekend.

“He’s already on the pitch, he’s already touching the ball, so it’s good,” Maresca said. “The last time I spoke to Cole was Sunday after the session, to ask how he was feeling. It was a good feeling, but I didn’t ask him details about the injury at all.”

When asked about whether Palmer could now potentially return against Arsenal, Maresca answered: “We are here for the Champions League game, and then after that we start to think about Arsenal.”

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Palmer has spent much of the season so far on the sidelines with a groin injury, initially missing a couple of weeks in August, before reinjuring himself shortly after returning to action.

Chelsea were more careful the second time around, giving Palmer two months to fully recover. But just as he closed in on a comeback, the 23-year-old picked up this new injury.

Palmer has already missed the weekend’s game against Burnley, and there’s no expectation he’ll be able to play against Barcelona on Tuesday night. But it seems the Arsenal match is still a maybe.

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If Palmer is unavailable, it would be the third Arsenal match he’s missed in unusual circumstances over the last couple of years, having sat out of Chelsea’s 5-0 defeat in April 2024 with a cold, before missing their 1-0 defeat in March 2025 with a brief hamstring injury.

The Arsenal game in 2024/25 was actually the only Premier League fixture Palmer didn’t feature in all season long.

When available, Palmer is obviously one of Chelsea’s key players, scoring 18 goals in 2024/25, assisting another 14, and scoring twice in his very limited minutes on the pitch this campaign. So Maresca will be desperate to have him fit for Arsenal.

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