Rosenior liked what he saw from one player in particularplaceholder image
Rosenior liked what he saw from one player in particular | AFP via Getty Images
Liam Rosenior was very impressed by one of his players in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup defeat to Arsenal.
Liam Rosenior had special praise for one of his players despite seeing his Chelsea side lose to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night. The Blues lost 3-2 in the Carabao Cup first leg at Stamford Bridge, managing to hang around and keep the tie close despite looking as though they might be put to bed by the Gunners at one stage.
Alejandro Garnacho scored off the bench to make it 2-1 before Martin Zubimendi made it 3-1 and fellow Spaniard Mikel Merino came within inches of making it four. Thankfully for Chelsea, Robert Sanchez partly atoned for his two previous errors - both of which led to goals - by producing an excellent save.
Garnacho then got a second late on to ensure the two sides go to the Emirates Stadium separated by just one goal. But while Rosenior did have praise for Garnacho for his second inspired performance off the bench in as many rounds in this competition, it was another winger who took the lion’s share of the praise.
"All of them are very good. Garnacho has a good goalscoring record,” Rosenior told Sky Sports. “Two very good finishes today. I though Pedro Neto was outstanding in both ways. Very good pressing. I asked him to play three different positions and he did it for the team.
"There were a lot of positive individual performances. We were missing a lot of players too. I saw the fight in the team and we are going to need that moving forward."
Rosenior on the defeat
Taking plenty of positives from the narrow defeat, Rosenior added: “In terms of energy, pressing, running back and helping the team I'm very happy. I'm not happy with the result, I'm not happy with the manner of the goals we conceded.
"When we get back to 2-1, the goal comes from a restart. They take a quick free-kick, we aren't organised in our shape and they play through. These are small details at this level. If you don't get those right, you don't get the results against a very good team.
"We still have issues with our build and that is something that we will address and work on moving forward. But, what I asked for from my team was energy and fight. We didn't give up. We're still in the tie.
Matt Upson’s take
BBC pundit Matt Upson accurately predicted that Rosenior would be pleased with what he saw on the whole. He told BBC Sport: “I think Liam Rosenior will enjoy the fact that they came back. There was a couple of times in the game where Arsenal could've run away with it.
“And I think that's partly down to them sticking at it, in fairness to them. Partly down the the fact that Arsenal haven't come away with here with a little bit more. That's a big positive. I'm looking at the team and I think there was only three players in the Chelsea team that didn't change position throughout the 90 minutes. He's had a real shuffle about with nearly everyone bar Andrey Santos, Enzo Fernandez and Estevao, the goalkeeper as well. With that in mind, they've actually done alright. They've had a bit of grit and dug in.”
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