New Chelsea era has trophy springboard as Cole Palmer turns up with magic in Conference League final

Photo credit: Football London

Okay, so this was not exactly Munich or Porto. It was not even Amsterdam or Baku.

But May 28 and Wroclaw will go down as an important date and place in the story of this new Chelsea, remembered for the first silverware of the post-Roman Abramovich era and the first, too, for Enzo Maresca and his young team.

If Chelsea’s goalscorers on those nights were their great heroes then here it was their provider and talisman. With Real Betis holding a deserved 1-0 lead, Cole Palmer conjured two wonderful assists in the space of five minutes, for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson, to flip the final on its head.

Betis were broken and the late goals flowed, from Jadon Sancho off the bench and Moises Caicedo through midfield. A 4-1 scoreline was harsh on the Spaniards, playing in their first ever European final, but fitting of the way Chelsea have dominated this competition from day one.

By Malik Ouzia

Full story at MSN