West Ham United’s much-maligned £30 million man is not the first name which comes to mind when discussing the greatest talents in modern football, from Kevin de Bruyne to Barcelona greats Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Yet, when picking the players who best represent some of the most important attributes in the game, Chelsea talisman Cole Palmer could look no further than a few miles down the road at the London Stadium.
One month until film buffs sink their teeth into Guillermo del Toro’s stylish, spooky re-imagining of Frankenstein, Palmer channelled his inner Victor. He stocked up on nuts and bolts, and set about creating his own mix-and-match monster.
Palmer, while putting the brain of Bernardo Silva in the skull of his hypothetical beast, combined the left boot of Lionel Messi with the right of Kevin de Bruyne. Add in the strength of Kyle Walker and the skill of Neymar, and all this footballing Frankenstein needed was a deadly delivery from set-piece situations.
The kind of delivery Palmer has seen James Ward-Prowse produce time and again. Albeit the wait for his first free-kick goal in West Ham United colours drags on without an end in sight.
In a week in which Nuno Espirito Santo left the door ajar for the former England international to reclaim his place in the squad – Ward-Prowse was dropped against Everton on Monday night – Palmer labelling him the finest set-piece taker in the game demonstrates his undoubted, if somewhat diminished, legacy.
Cole Palmer names West Ham United’s James Ward-Prowse football’s best set-piece expert
Ward-Prowse, on current form, certainly seems like an obvious outlier alongside Messi, de Bruyne and Neymar.
A baffling Josh Peck cameo in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, in footballing form.
Yet, there is still time for Ward-Prowse to overtake the legendary David Beckham as the most prolific free-kick marksman in Premier League history. He has been stuck on 17, one short of Beckham’s tally of 18, since joining West Ham from Southampton in 2023.
Ward-Prowse has also created the sixth most chances of any player in the top-flight this term. Despite consistent and understandable criticism of his recent displays, he remains a superb deliverer of a dead ball.
Nuno Espirito Santo suggests Ward-Prowse could still have another chance
Ward-Prowse could be spotted at Rush Green as Nuno took training ahead of Saturday’s trip to Arsenal.
But, after Nuno recalled Freddie Potts and spoke warmly about fellow youngster George Earthy, a player he worked with briefly at Nottingham Forest last season does appear to have slipped dramatically down the pecking order over the last week.
“We are trying to [get to] know the players as soon as possible, as best as we can,” Nuno said on Thursday. “So we can make the proper solutions and decisions.
“James wasn’t involved [at Everton]. Let’s see [if he returns at Arsenal]. We have one more training session.
“We always have the same mindset; What the team needs. It’s going to be a long season. It’s too early to say what we expect. We need the squad strong and healthy.”
While confirming that Jean-Clair Todibo and Aaron Wan-Bissaka should return after they too missed that Everton clash, Nuno admitted that his focus is on fixing West Ham’s nightmarish set-piece record.
In Ward-Prowse and Malick Diouf, Nuno boasts two of the finest dead ball takers in the league. However, West Ham still have a ‘big problem’ to solve inside their own penalty area.
“That is a big problem that we have to solve,” Nuno admits, albeit while insisting that some progress has been made already. “We’ve been working. I think we improved in the last game, [although there is] still a problem with the second phase.
“[Sorting out set-pieces is] something we are really concerned with. We have to solve it.
“Nowadays, set-pieces have a huge impact on the game. We have to become more aggressive because we have good leaders, good headers. Defending, we have to address it.”
An already daunting challenge this weekend is made all the harder, meanwhile, as Mikel Arteta indicates that Gabriel Magalhaes could feature following a midweek injury scare against Olympiakos.
