Cellular cochain complex ($C_{\mathrm{cell}}^q(X;A)=\mathrm{Hom}(C_q^{\mathrm{cell}}(X;\mathbb{Z}),A)$)

For a CW complex, applying $\mathrm{Hom}(-,A)$ to its integral cellular chain complex gives a cochain complex. The differential is precomposition with the cellular boundary. For finitely many cells it is represented by the transpose of the boundary matrix, reduced in the coefficient group when appropriate.

The cohomology of the cellular cochain complex naturally agrees with singular cohomology. A CW complex with no odd cells has zero cellular differentials and free integral cohomology on its even cells, although its cup product still requires a separate computation.

If an $n$-dimensional CW complex is extended by exactly one cell in dimension $n+1$, then its cellular cochain group in that degree is the coefficient field $k$. Regardless of how many higher cells are attached, the cohomology is a quotient of a subspace of that one-dimensional group. This gives the displayed bound. Finiteness of the higher cell sets is unnecessary for this particular conclusion.

The cellular boundary ${\mathbb{Z}}^2\to \mathbb{Z}$ is $(m,n)$, with kernel $\mathbb{Z}$ and zero cokernel when the degrees are coprime. The van Kampen theorem gives trivial fundamental group. The Hurewicz theorem supplies a map from the sphere representing a homology generator, and the homological Whitehead theorem makes it a homotopy equivalence. For degrees $2,3$ the space cannot be homeomorphic to a sphere: an embedded circle in a sphere bounds its two complementary regions, so both characteristic boundary maps would have degree of absolute value one.