Enzo Maresca has his own Virgil van Dijk at Chelsea as key injury admission made

Darren Bent believes Cole Palmer is just as "influential" at Chelsea as Virgil van Dijk is at Liverpool, as the former England striker tried to explain the Blues' recent struggles in the Premier League.

Since the most recent international break, Chelsea have played three Premier League matches, where they have drawn one and lost the other two. Pressure has eased somewhat with Enzo Maresca's side winning in the Carabao Cup and Champions League over the past 10 days, but Saturday evening's league clash with Liverpool looks an enormous one.

Palmer has been absent since the 2-1 defeat at Manchester United last month, where the England international limped off on around 20 minutes with a recurrence of the groin injury he has struggled with this season. Chelsea have since made the decision to rest Palmer, with the 23-year-old set to be available again after the upcoming international break.

Maresca said this on September 22: "We need to protect Cole for sure, 100%. Not only Cole in my personal view, because as I said now, because of the Club World Cup or because we never stop.

"We need to manage and protect different players. For sure Cole is one of them. Another one is Moi [Caicedo], Joao Pedro also, since he joined us, he's playing every game. The solution with Cole, I do not know.

"Now we have a meeting with the medical staff and we decide the best solution for him. But it is also a kind of injury that is not black and white. It's not an injury that someday you can be better. It's not that you are playing and tomorrow it disappears. Sometimes you can be better, sometimes you can be worse."

Palmer is not the only one out for Chelsea at the moment. Levi Colwill has not played this season, while Dario Essugo, Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap and Andrey Santos are also unavailable due to fitness problems. Bent, though, believes taking someone like Palmer, who possesses such an influence at Stamford Bridge, out of the side goes some way in explaining the side's recent struggles.

"You have to remember, you take anyone's best player and I'm talking about the most influential player in your team out, you're going to struggle," Bent said on talkSPORT. "Like you take Virgil at Liverpool, they're going to struggle.

"Cole Palmer is just such a special footballer. He influences so much. So I think once he comes back and then they get a couple of centre-backs back as well, then you can start judging."

Palmer was at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening to watch Chelsea's Champions League win against Benfica, with the Blues attacker sitting alongside co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali in one of the boxes. Palmer will again have to watch on as Chelsea look to get their league season back on track with a precious three points against Liverpool on Saturday.

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