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Cole Palmer insists Nicolas Jackson needs to ‘work harder in training’ to build on first Chelsea hat-trick
After witnessing his Chelsea teammate Nicolas Jackson score his first hat-trick for the club in their 4-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur, Cole Palmer has encouraged the striker to “put in more effort during training.”
In the match, 22-year-old forward Jackson made headlines by leading Chelsea to a resounding win, although Spurs were reduced to nine men after the dismissals of Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Spurs defended valiantly until Jackson broke the deadlock in the 75th minute.
Jackson, who has faced criticism since his €35 million (£30m/$38m) transfer from Villarreal in the summer, added two more goals in stoppage time to secure his hat-trick and all three points for Chelsea. However, Palmer, who converted a penalty to level the score after Dejan Kulusevski’s opener, suggested that Jackson should put in more effort to become a more consistent scorer.
“It’s been a difficult start for him, no hiding it, but he was brilliant tonight,” he said to Sky Sports in a post-match interview alongside Jackson. “He just needs to keep his head down and work harder in training and he will get many more hat-tricks.”
The interviewer double-checked with Palmer and asked: “You say work harder?”
The player replied, “Of course. You can always work harder.”
Despite acknowledging that he needs to get more yardage at Cobham—he too lost a few opportunities against Tottenham—Jackson did not seem to take offense at the remark.
“Always need to improve, always need to work harder. We continue working,” he said. “Now this is past, so we forget about it and move forward. I am very happy and it has been a difficult time for everybody in the team. We are coming back really slowly and happy to have scored three goals. It’s my first hat-trick, so I am happy to have done it with the biggest club in England and everywhere. We were dreaming about winning the big games and the confidence within the team is coming really slowly.”
Chelsea’s next Premier League game will be against league leaders Manchester City on Sunday at Stamford Bridge.