By Paul Green at Emirates Stadium
LIAM Rosenior says he is determined to get to the bottom of Chelsea’s disciplinary problems after Pedro Neto became the latest player to see red in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.
The Blues had been trailing to William Saliba’s 21st-minute opener but went in at the break on level terms after Piero Hincapie put the ball into his own net from Reece James’ stoppage-time corner.
The leaders were then second best after the restart until Jurrien Timber headed home Declan Rice’s 66th-minute corner with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and his team-mates appealing for a foul.
Neto picked up a yellow card for making his displeasure clear to the officials amid those protests and just four minutes after the goal was heading for the tunnel for a foul on Gabriel Magalhaes as he burst clear on the left.
Chelsea have now ended a game a man short on nine occasions across all competitions this season, an issue the recently appointed Rosenior knows he must address quickly.
The Stamford Bridge chief said: “It is not about the punishment, it is about finding the reason why.
“I don’t think Pedro Neto today, or Wes Fofana last week (against Burnley), would have been in that moment thinking about, ‘if I get a red card I’m going to get fined’.
“It is a focus and a concentration thing that we need to get right. I know the record of the club is not great from the start of the season and now it is getting bad.
“We had ten games when I was in where we didn’t have these issues but we have had two in two games, so it is something deep-lying that we need to get to the bottom of.
“The thing is for me if we get to the bottom of those two main things we can be a very, very good team and we can achieve all the things we want to achieve.”
The latest needless dismissal now gives the Blues boss another unwanted headache ahead of the midweek trip to Villa Park to face Aston Villa.
“It is disappointing for Pedro because he is a very, very good player and we want him on the pitch,” Rosenior said.
“Up until that moment he was actually causing Arsenal so many problems.
“The frustrating thing for us, not just [with] today, but we are going to miss him against Aston Villa.
“But as a group – me as the leader as well – we have to take more accountability for some of the decision making.
“We are having in terms of our discipline and in terms of the moments of the goals we are conceding, not just today, some of them are just not acceptable.”
Arsenal’s success this season has been in no small part down to their ability to make corners count, something which they managed to do yet again.
It was tough to take for Chelsea, especially as club captain James had managed to turn the tables on the hosts and cause them no end of problems with his own deliveries from corners.
But what must be particularly concerning for Rosenior and Blues fans is that it came just a week after Zian Flemming snatched an unlikely late point for Burnley in similar circumstances at the Bridge.
Rosenior added: “I think it is clear where our strengths are. I think it is clear to everyone what we need to improve on. I felt as a group, including me, we learnt our lesson last week.
“To concede two goals from set-plays, which ultimately has cost us the game, is really disappointing. To have another red card again, I’m really disappointed.
“They are not things we haven’t spoken about because there is a lot of good [things], I don’t want to be sat here every week saying how well we played without picking up the points.
“We need to start finding a way of playing well, which we have done in large parts of my time with the group, but we also need to pick up points very, very quickly.”
