Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Joao Pedro is definitely enjoying playing alongside Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer at Chelsea.
Right now, Pedro, Rogers and Palmer are the deadliest attack in the Premier League. However, Pedro has revealed that he has had to alter his game a bit following Rogers’ arrival from Aston Villa.
With Palmer, Pedro mostly passes the ball into his feet, the Brazilian recently shared. With Rogers, though, he is having to play the ball into space.
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Photo by Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images
After winning the Premier League Player of the Month award for August, he told Chelsea’s media channels in an interview: “With Cole, I try to always give the ball to his feet. With Morgan it’s more to the space, or to let him in a one-v-one situation. And my job is just to run, and then they’re going to find me!”
Whatever Pedro is doing on the pitch to help Rogers, it is working! The former Aston Villa man has already scored three goals in just four Premier League appearances this season.
He has also managed to provide one assist in the English top flight, which came in Chelsea’s thrilling 4-3 win over Pedro’s ex-club Brighton & Hove Albion. In the Carabao Cup, he has set up three goals, with all three of those assists coming in a single game against Leeds United.
At Villa, Rogers was both a goalscorer and provider, and it has been the same story during this early part of his Chelsea career. Rogers has not been at Chelsea for long, but figures at the club will feel that he is already starting to pay back his £117m fee.
Pedro has already repaid his £60m fee, which now looks like a bargain. He has been a revelation since joining Chelsea from Brighton last summer.
In his first full season at Stamford Bridge, the Brazilian scored 20 goals in 50 appearances. Pedro has been compared to Karim Benzema, and it is not hard to understand why.
Rogers is not as prolific as the Real Madrid legend, but he likes to drop deep like him. Pedro was absent from training on Tuesday, which will worry supporters ahead of Friday’s trip to Brentford. Hopefully it is nothing serious.