Although football has a myriad of statistical categories and data definitions these days, for attacking players there’s still only two outputs that are truly measured and treasured: goals and assists.
Once upon a time, they were treated separately: midfielders and wingers would be tasked with creating the assists, while strikers were charged with getting on the end of them and putting the ball in the back of the net.
But in modern football, attacking players are expected to have a more holistic threat… goals and assists have been merged into a single unit of measurement – goal involvements – to show how much they contribute to their team.
Cole Palmer has just become the first Chelsea player since Eden Hazard to deliver 20+ Premier League goal involvements in back-to-back seasons; an achievement made all the more epic by the fact that there’s still five months of the 2024/25 campaign left to run.
In that sense, the England international could yet break the club record for most goal involvements in a single Premier League season… although it will take some effort to reach the Chelsea legend currently at the top of the list.
Cole Palmer – 22 Goals, 11 Assists (2023/24)
Remarkably, Palmer has already served up an all-time season for Chelsea at the tender age of 21.
He powered his way onto the Blues’ all-time Premier League goal involvement standings in 2023/24, delivering 22 goals and a further eleven assists – the third-best campaign in the club’s history since the EPL rebrand in 1992.
Those performances earned him the respect of his peers plus a stack of awards, and confirmed Palmer to be one of the very best young talents in world football.
Those 33 goal involvements came in 33 appearances, and in 2024/25 he’s currently tracking at the same one-per-game ratio as well. So, if Palmer can remain fit and firing, he could yet match or surpass that tally this term, too.
Frank Lampard – 22 Goals, 14 Assists (2009/10)
Although a different type of player to Palmer, Frank Lampard’s ability to get involved in goals from deeper positions is every bit as impressive.
As we will discover later in this article, Lampard is tied at the top when it comes to the number of seasons in which he recorded 20+ goal involvements, but it was the 2009/10 campaign which remains his halcyon year.
It was an incredible year for Chelsea too, with Carlo Ancelotti’s men winning the Premier League title in a record-breaking term. They scored 103 goals, with 68 coming at Stamford Bridge, and finished the season with a goal difference of +71… all of these milestones were new records set.
Lampard missed just two Premier League games all season long, while contributing 22 goals and 14 assists in what was surely his best-ever season in the blue shirt.
Didier Drogba – 29 Goals, 10 Assists (2009/10)
As if Lampard’s heroics in 2009/10 weren’t enough, Ancelotti was also able to enjoy a career-defining season from Didier Drogba too.
It’s remarkable, really, given that the Ivorian missed a handful of Premier League games at the start of 2010 due to the Africa Cup of Nations. And so, in just 32 EPL appearances, Drogba was able to contribute 29 goals and ten assists.
This was the iconic number eleven at his absolute best, with his fearsome eye for goal matched by a creative output that also enabled Lampard and co to thrive in a tremendous Chelsea season.
Lamps Leads the Way
By our reckoning, six Chelsea players have enjoyed two or more Premier League seasons in which they have contributed 20+ goal involvements.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was the first to do so following the EPL’s rebrand, serving up 32 goals and assists in 2000/01 and a further 29 the very next season.
Another powerful Blues frontman, Diego Costa, joined this exclusive club in 2014/15 (20 goals, three assists), before the Spaniard added greater creativity to his game to take his tally to 27 – 20 goals, seven assists – in 2016/17.
The third Chelsea player to have exactly two 20+ seasons to their name is Palmer, although you suspect he will add many more to his collection moving forward.
Taking the bronze medal in this particular order of merit is Drogba, who delivered 20+ goal involvements for Chelsea in four different Premier League seasons. That 2009/10 campaign was his career highlight, but the big frontman also delivered in 2005/06 (23), 2006/07 (24) and 2010/11 (24).
Tied for gold are Lampard and Eden Hazard, who both had five Premier League seasons for the club in which they delivered 20+ goal involvements.
Lampard, rightly, should take the top billing for his productive output from the centre of midfield:
Frank Lampard’s 20+ Goal Involvement Seasons
| Season | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|
| 2004/05 | 13 | 18 |
| 2005/06 | 16 | 8 |
| 2006/07 | 11 | 10 |
| 2008/09 | 12 | 10 |
| 2009/10 | 22 | 14 |
But that should not allow for Eden Hazard’s outstanding achievements in the blue shirt be diminished. Remember, the Belgian only played seven full seasons for the club, so to record 20+ goal involvements in five of them is a stunning return.
His best season? Numerically, that’s 2018/19, when he scored 16 goals and assisted 15 others in just 31 appearances.