Cole Palmer fires blank in front of new girlfriend as Chelsea star hooked during home loss to Aston Villa

Holder and Palmer reportedly met when they were 17, before they first appeared together during a luxury summer holiday last year. Then, around the Christmas period in 2025, the pair were seen at Winter Wonderland - 12 months after he treated his ex Connie Grace to a similar outing, before they split over the summer. Then, this weekend, she was seen cheering on the 23-year-old as Chelsea went down to a disappointing defeat at the hands of Villa. Unfortunately for Palmer, the former Manchester City man was unable to stop Villa's charge, with the playmaker visibly annoyed at being taken off in the 72nd minute.

On that decision, head coach Enzo Maresca said, "No, he was working very well. On the ball and off the ball, pressing – he was very good. We have another game in 48 hours, so he was good and we're happy that he's back."

Chelsea put in an impressive performance for 55 minutes or so before Villa came alive and secured a comeback victory. In the first half, the Blues had an Expected Goals tally just shy of two, whereas the visitors mustered zero. And Maresca was quick to acknowledge that fact. 

The Italian, who was in the stands as he was serving a one-match suspension after picking up three yellow cards this season, told BBC Match of the Day: "I think for one hour, until we conceded, we dominated the game. We were very good. Unfortunately, after that, the dynamic of the game changed a little bit. I think by the time they scored to make it 1-1, we should have scored two or three more.

"If you analyse the first hour of the game, you are not talking about experience. But after that, we struggled with that. The changes they did - [Ollie] Watkins, [Amadou] Onana and [Jadon] Sancho - improved them a little bit."

Naturally, Villa boss Unai Emery was thrilled his team came away with a victory that looked very unlikely in the first half. But an Ollie Watkins brace cancelled out Joao Pedro's opener, a turn of events that extended Villa's winning streak to 11 in all competitions.

The Spaniard said, "We kept the same game plan we had at the first half, but the first half they were playing fantastic. They were dominating. We couldn't get the ball easily. We were defending low, we are defending well. We didn't concede corners, only one corner and they score. But we needed to be passionate and try to keep being resilient and we were speaking after the first half in the dressing room. Normally we could improve like we did because they were pushing a lot in the first half and in the second half we knew we could have our momentum, as well to control the game better than the first half.

"We were getting better but we needed to change some fresh legs and as well different players. And of course every play in the second half after when they win the match their impact was very fantastic and necessary."

Villa's defeat left Chelsea 13 points behind table-toppers Arsenal and 10 adrift of Villa. Barring a miracle, it seems the Blues are out of the Premier League title race and the best they can hope for is success in cup competitions and qualifying for next season's Champions League.

Incidentally, On Villa's upcoming clash with league leaders Arsenal, Emery said, "Of course we are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly. We are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in the day 34 because there are teams contending with a huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea and they are keeping contending more than us to be there. Of course we are performing very well, we are in a row-winning matches, we are competing fantastic, we competed first half fantastic and we were struggling. But the second half more or less like this season we are progressively getting better and being humble."

But he insisted they are not in a title race with Arsenal and second-placed Manchester City.

"No, 38 matches, no, not. If it finishes tomorrow then this match against Arsenal is finishing the league. There is still another 20 matches to play," he added.