Cole Palmer enjoyed a remarkable debut campaign with Chelsea, as he scored 25 goals and made 15 assists across all competitions.

Palmer scored 22 goals in the Premier League last season, and was by far Chelsea’s best player.

Arsenal legend Paul Merson doesn’t think Cole Palmer will have similar impact this season, as teams will be on him.

“He’s had an unbelievable season and he is a good player but this season every [opposition] team talk is going to be ‘Stop Cole Palmer playing’,” the Arsenal legend said on Sky Sports.

“He’s got that now the whole time. And now you’re giving him a nine-year contract?

“I’m not sure [he will score 15 goals]. Last season he was unreal. This season he is marked.

“We’ve seen it a million times, like with [Emmanuel] Adebayor. He ripped it up at Arsenal, got a new contract and was marked.

“It’s going to be hard. If he gets 15 goals next season I’ll be like ‘wow, fair play to you’. 15 is a lot of goals.”

Paul Merson was also critical of Palmer’s new contract, slamming Chelsea over their policy for handing out extremely long deals to players.

“It can’t be a better deal for the club. They don’t know what they’re doing,” he added.

“I’m not being horrible but how can you tell what he [Palmer] is going [to be like] in nine years’ time.

“I like him but they’re giving these players six, seven, eight year contracts. Some of them don’t even play, don’t even get in the team. That’s one of the reasons Conor Gallagher’s going because he only got offered two years.

“You know [Joao] Cancelo, three years ago at Man City he took the game to another level. One year later he was literally gone from Man City.

“You can’t tell what these players are going to be like in six, seven years’ time.”