COLE Palmer admitted it felt odd going into battle against his boyhood club after scoring the 95th minute penalty which earned Chelsea a 4-4 draw with Manchester City.
It looked as though the treble winners were all set to nick a thrilling contest 4-3 following Rodri’s deflected 86th minute strike and with the clock ticking down.
But there was to be more late drama when Armando Broja was fouled by Ruben Dias to hand Chelsea a lifeline.
And it was Palmer who kept his cool to continue his impressive penalty scoring streak since quitting the Etihad in the summer in search of regular first team football with the Blues.
Asked to explain his emotions by Sky Sports, the 21-year-old replied: “Very, very strange.
“It is the first time I’ve played against City since I left but I’ve got the utmost respect for the club that I spent 15 years at. It was nice to see some friends.
“We were unlucky not to get the win, but it was another great game.”
Palmer also accepted his equaliser had upset many of his friends and family back in Manchester.
“Yeah, probably,” he said.
“I’ve got many City fans I know but it is a game, isn’t it.”
There was a delay in the build-up to the penalty following an altercation between both sets of players, which eventually resulted in yellow cards for Jack Grealish and Nicolas Jackson.
Palmer ignored all the fuss and calmly scored his fourth spot-kick from the last five Premier League games.
He said: “It was a long time waiting but I felt confident.
“I’ve had a few penalties now. I just keep calm – the 90th something minute it was so I just kept focused and struck it.
“I’m not going to say I work on them because I don’t. I just trust in my natural abilities and thankfully it went in.
“It was amazing. I was excited before the game to see old faces and show what I can do. It was a great game.
“We went behind a few times and bounced back so it was a good game.”
In fact, Chelsea came from behind three times in a thrilling clash that will live long in the memory.
Erling Haaland also scored a penalty with the opener on 27 minutes, an opportunity he won after being tugged back by Marc Cucurella.
Thiago Silva levelled four minutes later with a header and then another former Man City favourite, Raheem Sterling, put Chelsea in front for the only time 10 minutes later.
Manuel Akanji’s stoppage time header ensured both sides went in level at the interval and within two minutes of the restart Haaland grabbed his second of the game.
Back came the Blues with another leveller midway through the half, Jackson reacting quickly to fire in after Ederson could only push out Conor Gallagher’s shot.
Then came all the late drama involving Rodri and Palmer to ensure 3-3 became 4-4, as Chelsea capped a decent week following Monday’s 4-1 success at bitter rivals Spurs.
Sterling told Sky Sports: “I think it was a good game.
“Obviously we wanted to win the game, we wanted to continue the win that we got at Tottenham last week and that’s exactly the mentality we out there with and done.
“We fought when we went behind, kept coming back and that showed the mentality of us.
“I scored and obviously scoring is a good feeling. You remember it is your old club, so you don’t try to overdo it.”
Chelsea climb up to 10 th and continued their decent displays and results against the top teams, something which Sterling believes is a sign of the progress being made under Mauricio Pochettino.
The winger said: “I would say it is just building. Since the manager has come in that’s what we’ve been trying to do – build slowly but surely.
“There has been some setbacks, but I think we’ve continued to work after some disappointing results.
“You can see we are making those steps little by little and long may it continue.”
