Enzo Maresca has warned the Chelsea squad not to rely on Cole Palmer to carry them through their tough run of fixtures.

22-year-old Palmer already has six goals and five assists from just seven Premier League games heading into Sunday’s meeting with Liverpool, establishing himself as one of the division’s most in-form players.

Maresca, however, challenged the rest of the Chelsea squad to raise their levels and support Palmer, rather than allow him to dominate the spotlight.

“If we think that Cole is going to solve all our problems, it’s a big mistake,” Maresca said.

“We put all the pressure on his shoulders and that is wrong. Also because we have Cole but we have many players that are doing well; Noni [Madueke], Pedro [Neto], Nicolas [Jackson], Christo [Nkunku], Enzo [Fernandez]. It’s not just about Cole, it’s about all the squad.”

Palmer’s form has helped Chelsea climb up to fourth in the Premier League table, four points behind leaders Liverpool, but Maresca rejected suggestions the game could go a long way to deciding the fate of the title at the end of the season.

“I don’t see in this moment Chelsea being close to these kind of clubs [Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal], for many reasons,” he explained. “But for sure we work every day to be close to [Liverpool], knowing it requires us to work together day by day, time to approach and go close.

“The only way to try to be close is just to be focused on the things we need to improve. To think where we can to be in four games, it’s a bit difficult. The only thing I can say is that we want to try to do our best on Sunday.

“I consider the City game our best this season, for many reasons. First of all because I know City, and second because we really played a good game, didn’t concede many chances. We had many chances before and after they scored. Game after game we are improving different things, but that game was a good game.”

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