Palmer inspires thrilling Chelsea turnaround
Danny Welbeck and Cole Palmer were twice on target, along with three assists for Morgan Rogers, as Chelsea won a thriller agCole Palmer and Morgan Rogers stole the show as Chelsea completed a remarkable comeback to beat Leeds United 6-3 in a chaotic Carabao Cup third-round clash.ainst Leeds.
Only sent on at half-time, Palmer scored twice, including one from the penalty spot, and Rogers assisted three times as Chelsea netted six in the second half to turn around a 2-0 deficit at Stamford Bridge.
Xabi Alonso initially rested his three star attackers – Rogers, Palmer and Joao Pedro – and Chelsea was soon punished for a timid first-half showing.
Brenden Aaronson poked at Mike Penders before the Chelsea goalkeeper parried over from Tarik Muharemovic's rebound header, but the Blues did not heed that warning.
Muharemovic powered home at the back post from Harry Wilson's lofted right-sided corner in the 23rd minute, prompting Alonso to send on Palmer and Rogers as part of a quadruple change.
That did not initially have the intended impact as Leeds doubled its lead in the 48th minute when Lukas Nmecha flicked Ethan Ampadu's low cross for Aaronson to whip past Penders from near the penalty spot.
Chelsea pulled one back after Daniel James clumsily stood on Pep Chavarria's foot, allowing Palmer to stroke a 53rd-minute penalty into the bottom-right corner. Two minutes later, Rogers offloaded for Palmer to curl into the bottom-left corner and level.
The impressive comeback was complete on the hour when Rogers beat Melvin Bard to Palmer's pass in behind, and teed up Pedro Neto to slide past a motionless Michael Zetterer.
Rogers claimed another assist soon after, crossing for Danny Welbeck to convert before Noah Okafor squared across for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to make it 4-3 from close range with 15 minutes remaining.
But Chelsea roared out of sight five minutes later when Valentin Barco thrashed in at the far post, before the Argentinian miscued an attempted stoppage-time effort that flicked off the head of Welbeck and beat Zetterer to seal a ridiculous win.
Cole Jermaine Palmer
Chelsea FC
