Perfect Palmer Breaks Penalty Record

Chelsea star, Cole Palmer, can do little wrong at the moment. Seemingly immune to pressure, he plays with a freedom and grace that is a joy to behold. “Cold Palmer” is perhaps at his chilling best when taking penalties, and he’s just broken the record for the most penalties taken in the Premier League without ever missing. In this article, we’ll explain how Palmer earned this (albeit rather niche) record, and we’ll see how he stacks up against other great penalty takers of past and present.

How Palmer Became Penalty King

In just 48 #PL appearances for Chelsea, Cole continues to kill it on the biggest stage.#CFC | #TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/pZLyrnAg8W

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 9, 2024

Palmer has now scored 12 penalties out of 12 in the Premier League, beating Yaya Toure’s record of 11 out of 11. Palmer’s 11th and 12th penalties came in Chelsea’s 4-3 victory at Tottenham on Sunday, 8th December, 2024. The first spot kick was a solid blast into the left corner, but his second was something special, which is a so-called “panenka” penalty – named after the cheeky dinked spot-kick scored by Czech player, Antonin Panenka, in the penalty shootout of the 1976 UEFA European Championship final – talk about not feeling the pressure!

It proved decisive and the Czechs won the shootout, leaving West Germany in pieces. Here is the original panenka penalty. And here is Palmer’s version. We wonder if he’d fancy a repeat of that if England end up in a shootout in the 2026 World Cup final!

Cole Palmer’s Premier League Penalties

Here are brief details of all 12 of Palmer’s Premier League penalties to date:

Date	Opponent	Keeper Beaten
8th December 2024	Tottenham	Fraser Forster
8th December 2024	Tottenham	Fraser Forster
28th September 2024	Brighton	Bart Verbruggen
15th April 2024	Everton	Jordan Pickford
4th April 2024	Man United	André Onana
4th April 2024	Man United	André Onana
30th March 2024	Burnley	Arijanet Muric
13th January 2024	Fulham	Bernd Leno
12th November 2023	Man City	Ederson
6th November 2023	Tottenham	Guglielmo Vicario
21st October 2023	Arsenal	David Raya
7th October 2023	Burnley	James Trafford

Other Premier League Penalty Takers Who Never Missed

Although Palmer now holds the record for the most penalties scored in the Premier League without ever missing one, there are several others who had a 100% record. As well as the aforementioned Yaya Toure, the following players are also in that exclusive club: Dimitar Berbatov (with nine out of nine Premier League penalties), and Raul Jimenez and Ruben Neves (both with eight out of eight).

Ivan Toney, who now plays in the Saudi Pro League, came agonisingly close to equalling Toure’s record, but after a perfect 10 out of 10 in the top flight, his 11th was saved by Newcastle stopper Nick Pope (although Toney did convert a penalty later in the same game). Toney’s technique is rather different to many penalty takers as he stares at the goalkeeper (rather than the ball) until the keeper makes a move one way or another, and then places the ball in the opposite corner. When it works, as it has most of the time, it looks very impressive, but it didn’t go to plan against Pope.

Other Great Penalty Takers of the Premier League Era

At the time of writing, Palmer is one of 17 players who have scored 10 or more penalties in the Premier League with a success rate of 90% or greater. Only he and Toure are on 100%, of course, but there are plenty of fantastic spot-kick sharpshooters not too far below, and those who’ve scored far more than Palmer as things stand.

There are some truly great players among those, with the likes of Theirry Henry, Erling Haaland, and Gary Speed all showing great poise from 12 yards. But we would say the man who is at the top of the pile – despite his single Premier League penalty miss – is Matt Le Tissier. With 25 EPL penalties to his name, and a total return of 47 successful spot kicks from 48 attempts in all competitions (including the pre-Premier League top flight), the former Southampton man has etched his name in penalty-taking folklore.

But what about the penalty that sullied Le Tissier’s almost-perfect record? That came in the Saints’ home match against Nottingham Forest in March 1993. Brian Clough was the manager of Forest at the time and they had a decent side that included Clough’s son Nigel and a young, battling midfielder by the name of Roy Keane. But it was Forest keeper Mark Crossley, who had an exceptional penalty-saving record overall, who was the hero that day, as he saved Le Tissier’s first-half pen to help his side win 2-1.

Worst Penalty Takers

While the players mentioned above have been particularly adept from the spot, there have been a decent number who’ve stuttered and stumbled towards less-than-satisfactory spot-kick stats. Of those who have taken 10 or more Premier League pens, here are the ones with the worst success rate:

There are a few surprises amongst those, not least the usually cool-headed Michael Owen, England’s second-top scorer Wayne Rooney and World Cup winner Paul Pogba. But you’ve got to wonder why certain managers kept the faith in some of those above, especially Kevin Philips and Aston Villa flop Juan Pablo Angel.