Chelsea have now had seven players sent off in the Premier League this season after Pedro Neto was shown two yellow cards in the span of three minutes in the Blues’ 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.
Liam Rosenior has been in charge for seven games and Chelsea have finished with only 10 players twice now, in back-to-back games after Wesley Fofana was told to walk last weekend against Burnley.
ARSENAL 2-1 CHELSEA — Video highlights & recap
Below is the latest Liam Rosenior reaction, speaking after his side fought back from a goal down just before halftime and gave the game right back to Arsenal in the second half.
Liam Rosenior reaction — What did Chelsea boss say after another red card in loss to Arsenal?
“It’s been the same story for the last three games. You have performances to get results and it’s the same story. It’s the same story — in the ascendancy in all three games. What I never do, win or lose a game, is start pointing the finger at players, but it is clear what we need to improve. It’s not our football, it’s not our attacking play. We need to make sure we are ruthless in both boxes. To concede two goals from corners and get another red card, that has been the story of our season and it’s been the story of the last few games.”
On defending Arsenal’s set pieces: “The first goal is very good — top. Give Arsenal credit, they’re fantastic — probably the best team in the world at set plays. If you think we have not worked on set plays all week or spoke about them, you’d be crazy not to. The second one is the one that’s disappointing. We just have to deal with that moment better. We have to be stronger, we have to have a better mentality. We give a free kick away before that and we give a corner away when we’re in control of the game, from a sloppy moment. I don’t want to keep coming out here and saying all of the good that we do, because there is a lot of good that we do, but we’re here to win games of football and we need to solve that before we go to Aston Villa.”
Who needs to be better defending set plays? “I think it’s a combination. The marking, the zone players, the positioning, the goalkeeper’s involved. I don’t singly out players. What I do is address in the dressing room, address it in the training ground. I think it’s clear to everybody who watches us play where we need to improve, on top of what is a lot of good things in the game. … It’s a very difficult thing to put your finger on. We get paid to try to win games of football. If you think we haven’t tried to address that, it’s crazy. We are trying to address it and I think sometimes you have to learn from consequence. I thought the consequence and pain of dropping two points against Burnley, and Leeds when we’re 2-0 up, would have switched us on today against a very good set-play team, and it hasn’t. That’s been the most frustrating thing about this afternoon, because we come off the pitch with no points.”
On his team’s lack of discipline: “I have respect for the previous manager Enzo [Maresca]. I don’t speak about what happened before, but it is starting to happen with me. That’s something I felt we had addressed. We went 10 games without a red card, now two in two games and that’s a problem we need to solve.”
