KIERAN GILL: reasons of Palmer has gone cold and the board's plans for Maresca

It is regrettable for Chelsea that they remain without a front-of-shirt sponsor for their 25th Premier League game of the season at Brighton on Friday night. No bookmaker, airline, bank, nothing.

They are the sole blank billboards among England’s elite and, like it or not, that ongoing void only adds ammunition to the chorus complaining their team is a walking advert for poor planning instead.

They have nothing up front, neither in sponsors and nor in strikers after the double whammy of Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu picking up muscular problems on a deadline day when Joao Felix was loaned to AC Milan without any additions being made to the attack.

It was a freak development which left the club without a single out-and-out striker, but one which has only increased the fan frustration on show since Christmas. Before then, they were singing: ‘We’ve got our Chelsea back.’

During their FA Cup loss at Brighton on Saturday, it was the name of Roman Abramovich emerging from the Amex Stadium’s away end. Before a trip to Goodison Park in December, Chelsea had won eight in a row in all competitions. Since then, it is just three wins in 10 - and they came against League Two Morecambe in the FA Cup and two teams in the Premier League's bottom five.

With Jackson and Guiu now set to be sidelined until April at least, it is on Enzo Maresca as much as anyone to bring order to the house of Chelsea by coaxing more out of everyone else.

Out of the FA Cup. Out of the Carabao Cup. Finishing fourth in the Premier League is the domestic priority and that makes Friday night’s return trip to Brighton a big match indeed – bigger than it initially seemed back when there was title talk.

Chelsea are currently on the longest winless streak away from home in the Premier League with their last victory arriving on December 8 at Tottenham. That was when they were averaging 2.9 goals per game on the road, a statistic which has since dropped to 0.5 amid a scoring slump.

Cole Palmer is being targeted more than he was, man-marked and fouled twice as much in 2024-25 as he was in 2023-24.

He has not scored or assisted in his last four games – his longest run since arriving at Chelsea from Manchester City for £42.5million – but even then, he forced their last two breakthroughs by sheer will. They were his crosses which led to own goals by Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen and West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Palmer is still creating chances in the Premier League – 32 since December 4, more than anyone else across Europe – but none have been converted by his team-mates.

As a conductor, he would be forgiven for occasionally feeling like Andre Previn working with Morecambe and Wise, and the 22-year-old Englishman has begun to show his frustrations on the field when his work is wasted.

Now is the time for others to step up at Chelsea, not least those who are supposed to be contributing from the wings. It is not the easiest task for Pedro Neto, Jadon Sancho and Co, with Maresca so averse to high and wide full backs that Ben Chilwell was blacklisted. He prefers them inverting into midfield, and that can leave his winger with more than one opponent to beat on his own.

They are working on improving their output, not only inside of Cobham but outside. For example, Noni Madueke has been training with an external skills coach in a bid to boost his consistency, repeating drills which involve the left-footer driving in from the right-hand side.

Chelsea could do with practice making perfect Friday night when they will kickstart a weekend in which a win over Brighton would guarantee they hold on to fourth position, ahead of Manchester City versus Newcastle and a Bournemouth side who head to Southampton.

It is a test of Maresca’s coaching credentials less than a week after he angered a few with his choice of words after their FA Cup exit at the Amex.

‘If there is something good after a defeat, it is that we can be focused on the Premier League and the Conference League,’ he told us.

And he did not say it just once but twice over the course of a press conference which forced some to ask whether Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte or Thomas Tuchel – winners all – would have uttered such a cliche.

Blues bosses are committed to backing Maresca, having handed him a five-year contract with the option of a sixth, and that includes a plan to improve the squad this summer.

A striker is set to be high on the agenda, and such help cannot come soon enough, the injuries to Jackson and Guiu having highlighted a vulnerability which is complicating their Champions League chase.

Until then, though, Maresca needs Chelsea’s wingers to show their worth from wide in lieu of them having zilch up top, especially if they want to entice the type of lucrative sponsorship deal reserved for those in Europe’s elite competition.