Chelsea are fourth after three matches of the 2026/27 Premier League season, with six points, eight goals scored and seven conceded. Cole Palmer has scored two of the eight.
Premier League, Monday 7 September: yes, on the pace they have set so far, and the reason to doubt it has nothing to do with Cole Palmer. Chelsea are fourth after three matches, on six points, having scored eight goals and conceded seven, which is a top-four position and the weakest goal difference of anybody in the top five.
They started away at Fulham on 24 August and won 3-2, with Palmer scoring one of the three, and six days later they beat Brighton and Hove Albion 4-3 at home. Chelsea were three goals up in the 32nd minute of that match and 3-1 by half time, so the lead survived the interval in the sense that they were still ahead. Brighton scored twice more after the break, and although Palmer answered in the 74th minute, curling in from outside the box to put the advantage back to two, Brighton still took a third from the final action of the game. Chelsea scored four at home and needed all four.
Then Sunday at Arsenal, where Chelsea led inside two minutes, conceded on 25 minutes and again on 50, and lost 2-1. They have now conceded goals in all three of their opening fixtures.
Palmer has two of the eight goals, both of them in the matches Chelsea won, and two in three works out at roughly twenty-five across a 38-match season. That would be a productive campaign for a forward, and it is still not the number that determines where Chelsea finish.
Fourth place last season went to Aston Villa on 65 points, an average of 1.71 a match, and Chelsea are currently taking two a match. Held across 38 matches, that is 76 points, eleven clear of what fourth position required last season. Chelsea have maintained that average for thirteen days.
Manchester City, Arsenal and Hull City are the three clubs above Chelsea this morning, and between them they have conceded three goals. Chelsea have conceded seven.
Sources: API-Football, BBC Sport, Premier League official
Revised, 7 September 2026: expanded from a one-line stat into the full piece.
