We’re now seven games into Xabi Alonso’s reign as Chelsea manager and nearing the end of a three-week international break that feels like a mini-reset for the season.
As we approach the second leg of the season, it’s natural to take a look at the lineup: who’s good and who’s not.
Our forwards are on the first place in the list of “those who do a good job”. You can put them in pretty much any order you want, they all did a great job. There was a lot of excitement about the potential of Cole Palmer – Morgan Rogers – Joao Pedro, and generally in football things don’t go as they do on paper. But in this case, everything went according to plan.
New addition Rogers settled in immediately and despite the pressure of a huge £117 million transfer fee, he hit the ground running.
In fact, if you are going to bet on the best scorer in a Norwegian bookie Betcheck.comRogers would be a good shout. He doesn’t have the advantage of playing up front like Joao Pedro, and he’s not in penalties like Cole Palmer – but that only increases his chances.
As we have already seen several times this season, for both England and Chelsea, he has an excellent ability to be in the right place at the right time to find the net. That was evident from his debut at Stamford Bridge in August, where he scored after just nine minutes in a friendly. v. Real Sociedad. It was a tap – but it proved he was great at sniffing out those easy chances.
His goal in a few weeks Against Arsenal It was another great example. It wasn’t the most impressive goal to watch, but the technique on the ground ball was superb and his instincts to know he could cut through a crowd of players and catch David Ryan is another intangible quality that will add plenty of goals for the former Aston Villa man if his attacking team-mates can stay on form.
Rogers has three goals and one assist in his first five league games of the season, meaning he is on pace to score over 20 goals in the league this season alone. It’s a big ask, but this team looks capable of landing some serious goals this season, so there’s plenty on the cards.