Cole Palmer explains why he had to apologise to Mauricio Pochettino after Arsenal draw
- Palmer scored Chelsea's opening goal in their 2-2 draw with Arsenal
- Former Man City midfielder has won over Pochettino since arriving this summer
- The pair were involved in a comical incident midway through the draw
By Tom Gott
Cole Palmer has admitted he had to apologise to head coach Mauricio Pochettino after hitting the Chelsea boss with a water bottle during his side's 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
Palmer has won over Pochettino and the Chelsea fanbase since his £45m move from Manchester City during the summer, netting his second goal for the Blues to open the scoring at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The game ended in frustration for Chelsea as they conceded two late goals, the second of which led to an embarrassing incident for Palmer.
He explained to club media: "When they scored their second goal I was getting a drink. I went to throw the bottle away, as you do, but didn't look. I just saw it loop dead slow and hit the gaffer. I said sorry to him and apologised properly after the game. Hopefully he won't drop me for that!
"We get on well. I try to show him every day in training what I can do. Work hard and just try to repay him because he puts a lot of faith in us."
Reflecting on the game, Palmer added: "We were at home in front of our own fans, so we weren't going to show them too much respect. We know that they're good but we're good as well. We played well. There are still a lot of areas we can improve in, but we're going in the right direction. It's starting to click, as you can see from the results in the past four games, but there's much more to come and we need to keep going.
"We're obviously very disappointed not to get the three points but they're a very good side, one of the best teams in the league, and we went toe-to-toe with them. I thought we played very well but we could have got so much more. It's gutting not to get the three points after being 2-0 up.
"We started very well, so to concede two late goals hurts. We conceded two goals that we could have avoided. There are many things to improve on but there are also positive things. So we just need to build on those, try to push forward and go and kick on for the next game."
Overall, Palmer admitted he has been delighted with the first few months of his time at Chelsea.
"I'm loving it here at Chelsea," the 21-year-old said. "Every day is good, even off the pitch with the lads. There's a good vibe here and everything’s good, so I’m loving it.
"I came to Chelsea to try to make an impact. I'm happy I've done it straight away. Credit to the lads, the lads are all good, helped me settle in and stuff, but I've just got to try to improve every day and give more and more."
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