Mauricio Pochettino shocked a lot of people on Saturday evening at around 4:30pm when the Chelsea team news was announced for their Premier League showdown with Arsenal. There was no sign of a natural striker in his lineup for arguably their biggest game of the season to date.

It was a toss-up between Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling for who would be starting through the middle in what was a fluid Chelsea attacking line, with Mykhailo Mudryk the other man. But it was Palmer, the man who arrived for PS42.5million from Manchester City on transfer deadline day last month, who was playing in the central role of the front three.

One of the numerous reasons Palmer was signed from the champions, football.london understands, is because of his versatility in attacking areas. The 21-year-old is predominantly a right winger but can also be used through the middle in the No.10 role. But on Saturday evening, it was a new role for Palmer, who was essentially being deployed as the false nine.

Naturally, Palmer likes to drop deep to get the ball and that remained the case even in his new role. Usually, with an out-and-out No.9, someone like Nicolas Jackson who was on the bench for the Blues, they will remain close to the central defenders for the majority of the game and look to run in behind when they can. But with Palmer it was different.

The former Manchester City man did what all false nines should do: lose the centre-backs at every given opportunity. And if they do follow Palmer, then it will benefit the team more, leaving plenty of space in behind.

He of course scored from the penalty spot after a few words with Sterling over who would be taking it, but he was really unfortunate not to score again. Palmer's shot, just moments after giving Chelsea the initial lead, went just wide from what was a tight angle.

Palmer completed all of his 25 passes in the 85 minutes he played, once again proving his ability on the ball, with some of them being difficult passes to play as well. He also won five of the 12 duels he was involved in, too, doing the job of a more traditional No.9.

It certainly gives Pochettino another option, with the centre-forward position a bit of an uncertain one for Chelsea. Jackson has had a mixed start to life at Stamford Bridge and there remains some questions whether he is the long-term solution to Chelsea's goal scoring issues, despite the Blues improving in that area over recent games.

It also begs a question over Christopher Nkunku when he returns to action. The France international is expected to be sidelined until mid-December/January time with the serious knee injury he picked up while playing in pre-season over in the United States.

But when he does return, what sort of attacking setup will we see Pochettino go with? Of course there is a lot of football to be played between now and then, but this Chelsea attack at the moment is perhaps the most promising we have seen in a long, long time.

Palmer is doing wonderful things, Sterling is playing the best football of his Chelsea career and the same can be said with Mudryk. We saw Nkunku play as almost a second striker, alongside Jackson, in pre-season but that was in a different setup.

There are a lot of questions when it comes to Chelsea's attack. And while this is clearly not the finished article, there are a lot of reasons to be excited - and Palmer is clearly one of said reasons.