Rogers Shines as Chelsea's New Star but Defensive Woes Persist
Rogers is wasting no time justifying the price tag.
The 24-year-old has stormed into life in West London, and on Saturday he needed barely six minutes to leave his mark again. Against Hull City at Stamford Bridge, the £117m forward slipped into space, took one clean touch from Joao Pedro’s threaded pass and drilled a ruthless, low finish into the far corner. No fuss, no hesitation. Just a striker playing with complete conviction.
Hull, who had not conceded a Premier League goal all season, suddenly looked human. Chelsea, for a brief spell, looked irresistible.
Rogers joins an elite Chelsea roll of honour
That goal did more than light up the afternoon. It dropped Rogers into a tiny, glittering corner of Chelsea history.
By scoring against the Tigers, he became only the fifth player ever to register a goal or an assist in each of Chelsea’s first four matches of a Premier League season. Only four names had managed it before him, and they read like chapters in the club’s modern story: Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard.
Opta’s record shows just how select this company is. Drogba set the tone back in 2010/11, exploding out of the blocks with four goals and four assists in the opening month as Chelsea tore through opponents. He looked unstoppable, and the numbers backed it up.
Then came the double act. In 2014/15, during a title-winning campaign, Fabregas and Costa both hit the mark together. Fabregas orchestrated everything, racking up six assists in those early weeks. Costa, snarling and relentless, smashed in seven goals as defences simply couldn’t live with him.
Costa wasn’t done. In 2016/17 he repeated the feat, this time with four goals and one assist as Chelsea again set their stall out early. The last man to join the club before Rogers was Hazard in 2018/19, gliding through the opening stretch with two goals and two assists, all effortless brilliance and inevitability.
Now it’s Rogers’ name alongside them. Different era, same weight. For a player barely settling into his new surroundings, that is a serious statement.
Old problems haunt a new star
Yet the story of the afternoon did not stay with Chelsea’s record-breaking forward.
After the early surge, the familiar flaws crept back in. Hull grew into the game, sensing uncertainty where there should have been control. Chelsea’s back line, so often their undoing in recent seasons, blinked again.
Mohamed Belloumi pounced first. A lapse in concentration, a momentary switch-off at the back, and the Algerian made them pay with an equaliser before the half-hour mark. The mood around the ground shifted. Rogers had provided the spark, but Chelsea’s defensive frailty doused it quickly.
Moments later, the damage deepened. Belloumi struck again, completing a stunning turnaround that left the home crowd stunned and Hull suddenly believing in something far more than damage limitation. From 1-0 up and cruising, Chelsea were chasing shadows and chasing the game.
As the contest wore on, Rogers’ historic streak faded into the background noise of a frustrating, fractured performance. His personal numbers glittered; the team’s display did not. The contrast could hardly have been sharper.
For Rogers, this start at Chelsea already carries the sheen of something special. For his manager, the question is blunt: how long can one forward’s brilliance keep masking a defence that refuses to learn?
