Paul Merson claims Cole Palmer hasn’t reached his best form this season as he “misses” one player and criticised one of his new teammates for thwarting his creativity.

Palmerhas five goals and two assists in all competitions for Chelsea this season having featured in just 16 games in an injury-hit campaign.

He came off the bench with Estevao on the hour mark against Arsenal on Tuesday but failed to have the desired impact as Chelsea limped out of the Carabao Cup.

And Merson believes Palmer “misses” Nicolas Jackson, who left on loan to Bayern Munich in the summer and was roundly criticised for his poor finishing but always gave the England international an outlet by running in behind and creating space for Palmer to work his magic.

“I like Palmer, but Palmer misses Jackson. Jackson made Palmer, and Palmer made Jackson. And people used to slaughter Jackson and say, ‘Oh, he’s no good. He misses chances,” Merson said on the Stick to Football podcast.

“You’d love to play with Jackson because he always went that way (forwards). He’s like you, Wrighty. You know what I mean? When they go like that, everybody drops off. I’m the 10, I can get on the ball.

“You watch Palmer now. He puts his foot on the ball, and there’s nothing there. Joao Pedro wants to come this way (dropping short), and there’s no movement in front of him.”

Palmer was seen deep in conversation with former Blues teammate Noni Madueke after the clash with Arsenal on Tuesday, and professional lip-reader Nicola Hickling has studied the footage and believes the pair was discussing Palmer’s chances of making England’s World Cup squad this summer.

Madueke is said to have told Palmer: “That’s what I’m saying to you. You know what the plan is. Just come back. It won’t harm you. Take it. You should play at the World Cup.”

Palmer partially covered his mouth in response but Hickling claims he ended by saying “at fault here”, to which Madueke responded: “Yeah, OK.”

Speaking at his press conference on Thursday, Rosenior insisted Palmer “understands the bigger picture” as he continues to manage the 23-year-old’s minutes.

“What we’re doing with not just Cole, all of the players. We have the very best medical team. We have the very best sports science team. We do many tests. We want to make sure that these players can play at the level that they need to play at to help us win,” Rosenior said.

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“So, in terms of Cole, there isn’t a time frame where he’s going to be perfect in a month or two months or three months. It’s just game-to-game. And that’s the way that we’ve been working with him. And I think that is the way we will have to continue working with him and a few of our players.

“He’s been magnificent. He’s been magnificent. He wants to be playing every minute of every game. We know the player that he is, the character that he is, but he’s also maturing as a human being. And he understands the bigger picture, which is his career.

“Bearing in mind, I’m very conscious of this, the lads played in the Club World Cup and then they went through the summer with no break. And they’ve got to play so many games. Our schedule has been crazy. Then they have World Cups to go to and international games to play.

“I want to make sure that the wellbeing is correct for these players, for their careers as well.”