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In Cole Palmer, João Pedro and Morgan Rogers, Chelsea Have A Front Three to Rival Any Other

Chelsea‘s new-look front three made a blistering start to life together on Monday night, each netting in a 3-2 win over Fulham. What can they achieve this season?

It was only one game, but the start Chelsea made to the Xabi Alonso era has got some excited tongues wagging.

On Monday night at Craven Cottage, the Blues ran out deserved 3-2 winners over west London rivals Fulham, with their new-look front three beginning life together in impressive fashion.

Alonso set his team up in the same 3-4-2-1 formation with which he won the Bundesliga at Bayer Leverkusen, and all three of Cole Palmer, João Pedro and Morgan Rogers got on the scoresheet.

Chelsea passing network vs Fulham

For Palmer in particular, but also Chelsea as a whole, this was an overwhelmingly positive performance after a disappointing 2025-26 when they finished way down in 10th place. The very early indications under Alonso look promising, with record signing Rogers appearing to have settled straight away and quickly striking up a functional and effective partnership with Palmer and João Pedro.

The group was labelled “as good as anything in the Premier League right now” by Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher after the game, and much of the discussion – quite possibly prematurely – is now centred around whether they have enough, or whether their front three is strong enough, for Chelsea to make a surprise challenge for the title. It may be that part of the reason anyone is willing to even enter this debate is that there’s a very real parallel to be drawn from their recent past.

Ten years ago, in the summer of 2016, Antonio Conte came to Chelsea for his first Premier League job, whipped an out-of-sorts but clearly supremely talented squad into shape while making a few expensive additions and, with no European football to distract/tire them, won the title with relative ease. There are only five instances of a team picking up more points in a Premier League season than Chelsea did in 2016-17 (93).

That year, in their number 10 shirt, Chelsea had a maverick midfielder who had a good claim to be the best in the league in Eden Hazard. Palmer may well have to prove as effective as the Belgian was back then to give Chelsea any chance this time around.

The cold, hard, and quite obvious truth is that at least a little caution would be wise. Chelsea were too strong for Fulham, but they still conceded two soft goals, and their defence and error-prone goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez, remain far too leaky on this evidence to challenge for the title.

But it is also true that this front three is special, and just like Hazard, Diego Costa and Pedro (or sometimes Willian) in 2016-17, they look well set to thrive in a formation that can afford the attackers more opportunities to affect the game in central areas, with none of them required to provide attacking width.

Alonso spoke afterwards of giving Palmer “freedom” but also “responsibility”. He wants his talisman to be free to take up the positions he can affect things most and play his natural game, but also demanding he grabs games and dominates consistently in the way we know he can, and how he did with his man-of-the-match performance against Fulham. Palmer attempted more dribbles (eight) than any other player on the opening weekend of the 2026-27 season.

That responsibility, however, also extends to defensive work: Palmer won possession more times than any other player on the pitch on Monday night (seven). Across all games on the opening weekend of the season, only Brighton’s Georginio Rutter won possession in the final third more times (four) than Palmer (three).

Cole Palmer possession won vs Fulham, Premier League 2026-27

For the ninth time since his Chelsea debut, Palmer both scored and assisted a goal, with only Mohamed Salah (15) and Ollie Watkins (10) doing so more times in that period.

However, seven of the previous eight instances came in 2024-25. In fact, his assist for João Pedro on Monday means that after just 31 seconds of this season, he equalled his Premier League assist tally for the whole of 2025-26, when he got one assist in 1,965 minutes.

As well as a summer of rest after Palmer’s surprise omission from England’s World Cup squad, the £117 million arrival of close friend and childhood teammate Rogers may well help. Palmer said after the Fulham game that he spent the summer “belling [Rogers] telling him to come [to] Chelsea.”

On a weekend when a number of noteworthy and expensive debutants made slow starts at new clubs, Rogers hit the ground running. As well as his goal, he became the first Chelsea player to have 3+ shots (3) and create 3+ chances (4) in the first half of his debut for the club in Opta’s record books (since 2003-04). He is also the first player to score on his Premier League debut for Chelsea since Christopher Nkunku in December 2023, which is quite something given the vast sums the club have spent in the past three years.

He ended the game with five chances created, which was more than anyone else in the Premier League on the opening weekend of the season. And all five of his came in open play.

Morgan Rogers chances created vs Fulham, Premier League 2026-27

His on-pitch understanding with Palmer will only help him settle further – three of the chances he created were for Palmer – but he also combined and dovetailed well with João Pedro, for whom he created one chance.

Rogers was brought in mainly for his ability on the ball, but also for his work rate and intelligent movement, which means he can function well with a centre-forward who likes to drop off. On the opening weekend, only four players made more runs into the attacking third when their team was in possession than Rogers (13).

Morgan Rogers runs into attacking third vs Fulham

João Pedro also got himself an assist – for Palmer – as well as his early goal to continue his excellent form from the second half of last season. In 2026, only Morgan Gibbs-White (11) has more non-penalty Premier League goals than the Brazilian (10), while his total of 13 non-penalty goal contributions (three assists) is fewer only than Bruno Fernandes (16) and Gibbs-White (14).

It might well be that this is as high-quality an attacking unit as anywhere else in the Premier League, and with all three fit and in this form, Chelsea could be a match for anyone on their day.

But at the other end of the pitch, the problems in defence and between the sticks are just as likely to hold them back as their attack is to fire them to the title. Inexperience appears to remain a big problem for Chelsea in defence. And there is also uncertainty over the future of midfielder Enzo Fernández that needs resolving.

There is no question, though, that the foundations are there for Alonso to make a success of his move to Chelsea. If he does, this exceptional front three are sure to play a key role.

Premier League Opta Stats

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