Chelsea star Cole Palmer ‘doesn’t care’ about pressure of Man City reunion, says Mauricio Pochettino

The boss of Chelsea believes that Cole Palmer can handle the pressure as he goes back to play at Manchester City’s stadium for the first time.

Mauricio Pochettino says that Palmer isn’t bothered by the pressure of playing against Manchester City. He also shared updates about Chelsea’s injuries.

Palmer, who is 21 years old, is returning to face his old team at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. He moved to Chelsea in the summer for £42.5 million. In November, he scored an important penalty in a match against Man City.

When asked if Palmer might feel nervous playing in Manchester this weekend, Pochettino said: He’s very clever. It’s hard to find a word in English from Spanish; he is smart, intelligent, and cheeky.

He is emotionally smart. He’s not worried about the pressure of playing at City. He will either play well or not well, but not because of the pressure.

He’s from Manchester but he adapts quickly, almost like he’s Brazilian or Argentinian. One of our strengths as Argentinians is adapting quickly.

Maybe sometimes people from one place struggle to adapt to another, but that’s not the case with him – he adapted quickly to life here in Cobham, around south London, and the club.”

Pochettino also said that both Thiago Silva and Carney Chukwuemeka won’t play in Chelsea’s match against City.

[Silva] is injured and won’t play tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll have to see how he is day by day after that. Robert Sanchez is available, which is good news.

Carney Chukwuemeka hurt his ankle two days ago and won’t play.

When asked if Sanchez, who is now fit again, will replace Djordje Petrovic in goal at the Etihad, Pochettino said: “It’s always good to have a player back, but we’ll see if he starts.

It’s always good to have more options, you never know what can happen in a game, so having them available is always positive.