In football, players are sometimes escorted onto the field before games by mascots.
Typically, these are young children, who hold hands with the players as they walk onto the pitch. They might also get a friendly hug or a pat on the head if they're lucky.
Cole Palmer, however, would have had to have stood up on his tiptoes to do that at the weekend. Prior to Chelsea's 2-1 win over Brentford on Sunday, instead of walking a child out onto the pitch as customary, Palmer was himself escorted out from the tunnel by a young man who was more than just a bit taller than him. Unsurprisingly, Blues fans noticed, and laughed.
"There was no holding hands with that grown man for Palmer," wrote one fan on X. "Couldn't even stand behind him." "Who picked that grown man as a mascot?!" wrote another fan, while one remarked with some laughing emojis: "At a point I thought Cole Palmer was the mascot." Another fan wrote: "The size of him!"
Chelsea close in on Liverpool
Chelsea's victory over the Bees saw Enzo Maresca's side move to within just two points of Premier League leaders Liverpool. Marc Cucurella opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge just before the break when he headed home Noni Madueke's cross. Nicolas Jackson then hit his ninth goal of the campaign to make it 2-0 in the 80th minute, before Bryan Mbeumo netted a late consolation for the visitors to complete the scoring.
Speaking after the match, Jackson, who is now the top flight's second-top scorer this season, acknowledged Brentford's strong showing. "It wasn’t an easy win because they are a difficult team to play against, but the most important thing is we got the three points in the end, so we’re happy," he said.
On a big chance he missed in the second period, which saw him blast the ball over the bar from close range, the Senegal international said: "I missed that one, but the only thing I was thinking about was getting another chance. I wanted to score to help the team win."
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