Palmer haunts his former club as Man City and Chelsea draw eight-goal thriller
Buoyed by their memorable win against Tottenham last time out, Chelsea showed plenty of intent in a blistering opening against the Citizens.
Their positive start was stunted however, when Marc Cucurella grabbed Erling Haaland as the Norwegian went to attack Bernardo Silva’s cross.
Haaland had to endure a lengthy wait to take the penalty but wasn’t impacted, sending Robert Sanchez the wrong way to calmly dispatch his 12th league goal this season.
Undeterred though, Chelsea then struck twice in eight minutes having previously not scored against their opponents since the 2021 UEFA Champions League final.
Thiago Silva swiftly equalised when he met Conor Gallagher’s corner delivery with a superb header for his first goal since January 2022.
Then, Reece James got the better of Josko Gvardiol and teed up Raheem Sterling to score against his former club.
Sanchez came up with heroics of his own at the other end to deny Haaland, but he was left helpless by Manuel Akanji’s pinpoint header as the defender got a fourth goal in his last five matches for club and country.
There was absolutely no chance of things slowing down in the second half, as Julian Alvarez squared the ball for Haaland to bundle it over the line within 90 seconds of the restart.
Sanchez then made two important saves to keep the deficit to one, denying Alvarez’s instinctive effort and Jeremy Doku’s strike at the end of a typically mazy run.
The Blues made the most of that, as Nicolas Jackson was quickest to react when Ederson parried Gallagher’s strike from range to convert his fourth goal in two games, having scored just twice in the league before that.
Rodri’s strike from the edge of the box took a flick off Silva’s outstretched boot to wrong-foot Sanchez for what seemed to be the winner, but there was one more twist.
Ruben Dias brought Armando Broja down in the 92nd minute to give away a penalty, which was to be taken by Palmer in his first match since leaving the Citizens, and the 21-year-old clinically converted.
Chelsea have now lost just one of their last eight across all competitions with more positive signs coming for Mauricio Pochettino.
Man City are still unbeaten in six competitive fixtures and top of the PL table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)