Morgan Rogers feels Chelsea went toe-to-toe with Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday and it was only ‘a bit of quality in and around the box’ which proved the difference between the teams.
The Gunners came from behind to win the game 2-1 and keep up their perfect start to the Premier League season.
The afternoon started brilliantly for the visitors as Rogers put the Blues ahead within two minutes with a strike from the edge of the penalty box.
This sparked a wildly entertaining first half, which was played at a relentlessly fast pace as both teams attacked at every opportunity.
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Arsenal equalised through Kai Havertz on 25 minutes and went ahead early in the second half thanks to Martin Odegaard.
That was the end of the scoring and Arsenal ultimately deserved the win, although there was a scare late on as David Raya was forced into an excellent save by substitute Estevao.
Rogers was looking at the positives in Chelsea’s first loss of the season and felt there was very little between the teams, just the key moments as Havertz and Odegaard found the back of the net.
‘We never gave in. We went toe-to-toe with them physically, mentally being switched on and being so focused,’ Rogers told Chelsea club media.
‘That’s the most difficult thing with coming here and playing Arsenal. They’re so physically demanding it’s tough to play against them, but we matched them in that element.
‘Probably a bit of quality in and around the box where they scored two and we didn’t and I think ultimately you could be looking at a different game, but there’s other things that we can work.
‘That’s the way football is sometimes, you try and nit-pick sometimes but there there’s not necessarily need to because sometimes you just lose a game and that’s what it is. Not to get too down and low about it we’ll keep moving and be fine.’
Rogers said Chelsea were happy to learn things from Mikel Arteta’s team, but did not feel that they were outclassed in any department.
‘They’re the champions and we want to aspire to to do things in the league as well,’ he said. ‘You look at that and you see what they do and you want to compete and match it and see where you are and see where you’re 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 in any part of the game. So I think that’s that’s a real positive to take from it.’
Arsenal had more of the ball, created more chances and certainly could have scored again late on if they had been more clinical on the counter-attack.
However, Chelsea threatened throughout, with Pedro Neto hitting a post and Rogers also having a good chance to score a second in the first half.
Blues boss Xabi Alonso is just three matches into his spell in charge at Stamford Bridge and was pleased with a lot of what he saw at the Emirates, with plenty still to work on.
‘We didn’t want to from the first minute sit deep and to wait and to make it a long game,’ he said. ‘We wanted to be active. We wanted to be protagonists in the pressing – sometimes to go higher, sometimes lower – to have good possession.
‘We did many things right, other things we need to make better. We need to learn from them, because this is the top level and when we have to play at the top level we want to be as efficient and as accurate in all the phases of the game as possible.
‘But this is where we are. This is game three for us in this new start, this new phase for Chelsea, but I am happy with the spirit and attitude of the players. They have given everything, they have tried and they fought really hard.’