Cole Palmer and Kieran Trippier – two players sold by Manchester City – have enjoyed very strong starts to the 2023/24 campaign.
The duo’s excellent efforts have now been made clear in an interesting statistic posted by OptaJoe.
So, what is the situation involving Kieran Trippier and Cole Palmer? Let’s take a look…
What’s the story?
Well, this will surely be of interest to some Manchester City fans.
Pep Guardiola decided to sell Palmer to Chelsea in a £42.5m deal on transfer deadline day – despite the forward scoring against Arsenal in the FA Community Shield and also against Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup.
In regards to Trippier, Manchester City sold the England international to Burnley back in January 2012, and he has since blossomed into one of the Premier League’s best footballers.
Now, both Palmer and the Newcastle No.2 rank first and second respectively for progressive passes in the Premier League so far this season.
OptaJoe show that the Chelsea No.20 averages 8.3 progressive passes per game in the Premier League this term, whereas Trippier ranks second on the list with 8.0 forward passes every 90 minutes.
Guardiola loves to see his sides get forward and play incisive, forward passes, so we wonder what the Spaniard thinks about this statistic.
Specifically, we wonder what he thinks about the fact Palmer sits top of the table.
That was the only exit Guardiola held control over, whereas Trippier obviously departed long before the 52-year-old arrived at the Etihad Stadium.
Cole Palmer & Kieran Trippier would not look out of place at Manchester City
It is testament to Palmer and Trippier’s ability that they would not look out of place whatsoever at Manchester City.
The pair are technically brilliant, and, specifically in regards to Palmer, it speaks volumes about the quality at Guardiola’s disposal that he deemed the England Under-21 international surplus to requirements.
The Spaniard is believed to have sold Palmer due to his faith in Oscar Bobb.
Only time will tell if Manchester City truly live to regret selling the 21-year-old to Chelsea.
