"We Did That" - Morgan Rogers Makes Encouraging Chelsea Admission About Teammates After Arsenal Defeat | OneFootball

Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back against Leeds United in the Carabao Cup.

Morgan Rogers is still confident Chelsea have the quality to compete with Arsenal in the Premier League this season despite Sunday’s 2-1 derby defeat.

Xabi Alonso's side suffered another disappointing defeat to the north London side at the Emirates, their five league away defeat in a row to the Gunners.

Chelsea started off with a bang, with Rogers striking within just two minutes from the edge of the area to give the visitors an early lead to silence the home crowd.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, as in their previous two league matches, they soon came under heavy pressure after an early lead.

Kai Havertz levelled the score in the first half, before Martin Odegaard put Arsenal ahead after the break. The one-goal lead, as it often does for Mikel Arteta's side, proved enough for the hosts to secure three points.

A derby loss after a promising start to the season has put a halt to Chelsea’s momentum in Alonso’s debut season in charge, but Rogers insisted that it is not all bad.

“Of course, they’re the champions, and we want to aspire to do things in the league as well,” the England international told Chelsea’s in-house media.

“You look at that and see what they do, and you want to compete and match with it to see where you are at. I think we did that all over the pitch.

“I can’t look at a player in there and say we didn’t match and go toe-to-toe with them at any part of the game, so that’s a real positive to take from it.”

As Rogers pointed out, Chelsea clearly have the quality to compete with Arsenal this season, but they still have plenty of issues to address before they can even get to this point.

The most obvious one is the team’s poor defensive record. Chelsea have conceded seven goals in the first three league matches with no clean sheets.

This team are heavily reliant on their attacking front to outscore opponents, and when it did not go as smoothly as hoped, such as against Arsenal, it was as if they had no Plan B. Expecting the trio of Rogers, Cole Palmer, and Joao Pedro to deliver week in, week out may not be sustainable as well.

Moises Caicedo’s absence was really felt, too. Alonso understandably decided against taking risks after the midfielder’s injury setback, but without their primary ball-winner, Chelsea struggled in midfield despite Reece James and Romeo Lavia’s efforts.

On the bright side, Chelsea, who remain fourth in the table, will not have time to dwell on the defeat since they must shift their attention to Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third-round tie against Leeds United.

It may present Alonso with the opportunity to experiment and fine-tune his team’s defensive setup, perhaps even try out a different system entirely.

In the previous League Cup game against Luton Town, Alonso opted for a 4-2-3-1 rather than a 3-4-2-1, allowing Estevao Willian to play in a more natural winger role.