The Chelsea striker spoke after the Blues' 2-2 draw with Hull City
Joao Pedro
Joao Pedro has started the 2026/27 season in red-hot form for Chelsea (Photo by Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
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Joao Pedro believes Chelsea's front three of himself, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers can be "very dangerous", although he insists the Blues need to improve after the draw to Hull City.
Morgan Rogers had fired the west Londoners into an early lead at Stamford Bridge on Saturday but woeful defending allowed Hull to equalise before the half-hour mark through Mohamed Belloumi, who doubled his Premier League account minutes later to put Sergej Jakirovic’s side on course for another upset.
Joao Pedro levelled from Palmer’s cross midway through the second half to spare Chelsea’s blushes, but it proved to be more dropped points for Xabi Alonso's side.
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“I think we started really well,” said Joao Pedro. “We put pressure on them, we controlled the game, but we need to improve on the details. This is very important for us. So we need to analyse and improve.
“We have to adapt quickly because we know how the Premier League is. If you drop points, in the end it will be difficult to recover. We need to adapt quickly.”
It took just one Hull attack for Chelsea’s vulnerabilities to be exposed. Malo Gusto was hesitant in dealing with a long ball into the corner, then made a feeble attempt to prevent Ryan Giles from hoisting it into the box. Jorrel Hato seemed not to know whether to attack the ball or wait for it to drop. He did neither, and as the ball bounced over him, Belloumi arrived to thump in the equaliser.
Semi Ajayi then headed the resulting corner against the bar with goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez flailing, and the ball came out to Belloumi whose driven effort was deflected in.
“We knew if they got in front they were going to sit at the back and wait for us to come and play for the counter-attack,” said Joao Pedro. “It was a tough game. In the end we get one point, but we need to improve and I think we’re going to improve soon.”
The Brazilian striker took his goal tally for the season to three in four games and Chelsea were once again hugely impressive in attack. The front three of Joao Pedro, Rogers and Palmer continued their fine form and link-up play that has been a feature of Alonso’s early weeks, though their efforts were ultimately undermined by chaos elsewhere on the pitch.
“When Cole passed to me I just tried to hit it on target and I was very happy to hit a good shot,” said Joao Pedro of his goal.
“I enjoy it a lot because they (Palmer and Rogers) are very good players and I know when we play close, we can be very dangerous. We showed that again.”
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