Cole Palmer, Chelsea Rout PSG, Stun Fans in FIFA Club World Cup Bracket 2025 Final Win

Did anybody see this coming?

Chelsea absolutely stunned European champions PSG on Sunday at the final of the Club World Cup, 3-0, led by a first-half brace from Cole Palmer and a tally from João Pedro.

PSG were an absolute buzzsaw throughout the 2024-25 season, winning a treble, and had continued that form in the Club World Cup to this point, advancing through the knockout phase of this latest tournament by a 10-0 margin—including a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich in the quarters and a 4-0 stomping of Real Madrid in the semis.

Chelsea clearly weren't intimidated, and fans and pundits alike were stunned by what transpired:

Chelsea made strides in Enzo Maresca's first year on the job in the 2024-25 campaign, finishing fourth on the Premier League table with 69 points. It was a marked improvement from 2023-24's sixth-place finish in Mauricio Pochettino's lone year on the job for the Blues, and certainly a major departure from the 44-point disaster in 2022-23 that left the club in 12th.

Chelsea's frantic approach to aggressively buying up talent on the transfer market in recent years—compiling a roster at times that has felt like a patchwork imitation of a fantasy football roster run amok—hasn't always translated to success. Maresca, however, feels like a manager capable of creating the right culture while wading through the talent on hand to identify a reliable core.

Palmer is the headliner of that core group. The 23-year-old has managed an impressive 37 goals and 19 assists in his two Premier League campaigns with Chelsea. Pedro feels like an inspired addition as well.

PSG was simply the latest club to feel their wrath, and now Chelsea supporters can ride high on some well-earned optimism ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.