New Blues boss Xabi Alonso has spent heavily in the summer transfer window with £47M deal for Palestra coming in as part of a wider £317M squad revamp.
Palestra has made huge strides in the last 12 months, with just one campaign at Cagliari enough to convince Chelsea over his readiness to challenge Reece James at right-back, with the latter still an ongoing fitness concern.
The 21-year-old has featured in preseason and he's confident of following the tradition of Italian stars at Stamford Bridge with a high target of overtaking Gianfranco Zola as the No.1.
"I know Zola played at Cagliari and at Chelsea. He's a legend and maybe I can do what he did at Chelsea.
"I also spoke with Davide Zappacosta, who I played with, and he always told me good things. A lot of Italian players have played here. I want to be the next top one.
"I had a good conversation with Alonso about everything before signing, and I was very happy with it. There were some clubs who wanted me, but when Chelsea reached out, I agreed as they're one of the biggest clubs in the world."