Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know Premier League stories. This week: 🔺 Palmer-Rogers double act analysed🔺 Scott starring for Bournemouth🔺 Crystal Palace's tough-tackler Morgan Rogers was bemused when he found out Cole Palmer was man of the match in Chelsea's win over Leeds. "I got four assists," he pleaded.
"I'll say you should have had it," replied a smirking Palmer. I'm just a bystander," added Rogers. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player The amusing exchange, captured by the Sky Sports cameras before their interview, showed the chemistry between the pair.
It can be seen on the pitch too. Do they feel like they've been playing together forever? "We pretty much have," answered Rogers.
Close friends and former team-mates in England and Manchester City's youth teams, Rogers and Palmer have picked up where they left off at Chelsea, wreaking havoc either side of Joao Pedro and providing a combined 11 goals and assists in five games so far. Their half-time introductions inspired Chelsea's comeback on Wednesday. After Rogers had ingeniously flicked the ball off his backside to set up Palmer's equaliser, the pair could be seen combining in the lead-up to Chelsea's third and sixth goals too.
Those combinations have become a theme. Across Chelsea's five games so far, Rogers has played nearly twice as many passes to Palmer than any other player, with 19, while only defender Josh Acheampong has received more passes from Palmer, on 15. They have only directly combined for one goal, surprisingly.
But that total could easily be higher. In the 4-3 win over Brighton, they took it in turns to tee each other up, only to be denied by last-ditch blocks. In their opener against Fulham, Rogers created three shooting chances for Palmer but he couldn't capitalise.
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