Head coach Enzo Maresca has revealed just what it is about Cole Palmer that makes the Chelsea star so good with a rallying cry for his fellow attackers to follow. Palmer is coming off the back of four goals in three games as his side welcome Brentford to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Chelsea are looking to build on their six straight wins in all competitions, but will be aware that the last time they approached this position, in 2022 under Thomas Tuchel, a defeat against the Bees at home put an end to the run. Palmer and his teammates will be well rested for the game, however, with an even younger than usual side named for Thursday's Conference League victory over Astana in Kazakhstan.

In fact, Maresca and his backroom are likely to be the only staff with a playing role to actually have travelled the eight-hour plane journey to Almaty. He will be able to lean on a fully-fit Palmer once again, though, with Chelsea choosing to leave him out of the UEFA squad for the group phase.

Other first-team stars were also left at home as plans to extend the superb domestic form continue after beating Tottenham 4-3 on Sunday. Palmer scored two penalties to complete the comeback from 2-0 down and Maresca is relishing the chance to work with a player of his level.

"I agree with you," he said on having unique access to someone like Palmer, who he can mould to be among the best in the world. "I feel very proud or privileged to work with Cole. I feel quite lucky, to be honest, to work with a lot of them because, for sure, Cole is a different one to the rest, but here we have many good players where a manager, in this case me, I feel lucky, I feel proud to work with them."

What is it that Palmer does differently to others, though? "If you see many big players, many top players, they are in that way [relaxed and composed on and off the pitch]," explained Maresca. "They look almost that they don't care about anything but it's because they are in that way, but for sure they care.

"Probably being in that way gives them more freedom or [makes them] more relaxed and you can see Cole in exactly the same way. He was this way exactly four years ago and is still the same."

Maresca had great success at Manchester City for one year in the academy setup, where he worked closely with Palmer. Now operating as an elite force, it is the 22-year-old's attitude towards the game which helps him.

"You don't need to waste energy to convince him that he has to behave in a different way because he is behaving in exactly the way that they need to behave," Maresca said. Palmer has no outside distractions and is not swayed by being a superstar footballer in the spotlight, his manager adds.

"Just focus on football, focus on the important things. The most important thing is that he loves football. I say that every time we start a session he is one of the first out, [he] starts to play with the ball and you can see in that moment the ones that really love football and the ones who, they just play football."

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After a third goal in as many games, Jadon Sancho is in line to start next to Palmer in attack on Sunday. He has impressed since completely a loan move, which is now almost certain to become permanent next summer.

"Jadon, since we started, is doing well," praised Maresca. "Probably, he was lacking a finish because we had many games where he was, I remember Nottingham [Forest], many different games when he arrived one-on-one and is always looking for assist, assist, assist. That it something good, but sometimes you are in a position where you can take a shot."

Sancho is now on his best run of scoring form in England since leaving the City academy himself. "Now he's doing it better. If you see a little bit of us with Noni [Madueke] and Pedro [Neto] from the right pocket with Cole, or the number nine with Christo [Nkunku], Nico [Jackson] since we start., we score a goal. Probably in the left side with left pocket and left winger we struggle a bit more but, in this moment, we start also with Enzo [Fernandez] and Jadon, so the five attacking players, we need goals and assists from them. They are all doing the same."

Maresca still wants more from his forwards, regardless of their game-winning abilities. "And then, off the ball, the way they work, Pedro and Noni one side, Jadon and Misha [Mykhailo Mudryk] the other side, it's simple that when we don't have the ball they have to run. It's not more than that because you can not only play football when we have the ball. You have to play football when we have the ball. We ask them, we require a sacrifice and hard work."

Brentford will test Chelsea in a very different way to how Tottenham did. With Palmer and Sancho, Maresca has the tools to put more pressure on Liverpool at the top of the table anyway.