- 4 hours ago
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior on their UEFA Champions League last 16 draw with PSG, the latest injuries and the challenges of facing Premier League leaders Arsenal
Cobham, London, UK
Cobham, London, UK
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00:00Okay, good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We will begin with a broadcast section and we'll start with
00:08Chris and Sky Sports News. Away you go, Chris.
00:10Afternoon, Liam.
00:11Afternoon.
00:12Can you start with some team news? There was a bit of a list here. Esteval, Rhys James, Romeo Lavia,
00:17Jamie Giddens. How have those guys been progressing?
00:20Yeah, Rhys is absolutely fine. Romeo Lavia is getting stronger and stronger. We had a mini practice match in the
00:28week where he looked really good in,
00:29which is great for him. Unfortunately, Este will be out for a little bit longer and Jamie's progressing really, really
00:35well in terms of his rehab.
00:37Anything else to come about that?
00:39No, Kuku, he's progressing really, really well, but he's not available for Sunday, but hopefully we get him back in
00:47as quickly as possible.
00:49Levi's doing really, really well with his long-term rehab, so at the moment, Dario is back on the training
00:54pitch as well with Sugo, which is good.
00:56And hopefully we can get all of these players back and fit for the running of the season.
01:02PSG in the Champions League.
01:04They're the only European champions, but this club obviously has a decent record against them recently as well in the
01:09Club World Cup.
01:10How do you react to that draw?
01:11So excited.
01:14PSG are a fantastic team.
01:16Obviously, I have experience of playing against them in France.
01:20They're a team that I've always admired.
01:23I think Lewis done an incredible job there.
01:26These are the games you live for.
01:28These are the games that you come into football for.
01:31And it's going to be a great tie between two fantastic teams.
01:34Yeah, and I'm really, really looking forward to it.
01:36But we've got another three games before that that I need to focus on.
01:41How's Wesley Favala and how have you been kind of dealing with that situation this week after you received that
01:48abuse?
01:48Yeah, it was a tough, obviously a tough day for Wes.
01:51Firstly, obviously what happened in the game.
01:54Secondly, the fallout and racist abuse that he got online.
01:58Wes is a tough guy.
02:00He's a good guy.
02:01But it's amazing you spoke about racism last week in the press conference.
02:06And it affects you in ways that it just shouldn't exist.
02:10It shouldn't exist, whether it's online, whether it's verbal, in person.
02:14It's just something that we have to try our very best to eradicate from life, let alone football.
02:19But Wes is absolutely fine.
02:21He's trained well this week.
02:23Chelsea did record a pre-tax loss of £355 million for the year in 2024-25.
02:31In terms of your job, though, is it going to affect anything in terms of having to sell players?
02:36Have you spoken to the club above about how these losses potentially affect your job?
02:42My job is to focus on the team, is to try and make the team and the squad as strong
02:46as possible to eventually win things.
02:50That's why I'm here.
02:51I will have those conversations with the ownership and the guys above me.
02:55But that's something that's not really at the forefront of my mind.
02:59I just want to make sure that on the pitch, we're as successful as possible.
03:03Some interesting comments from the heads of Malonghi yesterday from the PFA.
03:07You specifically mentioned Cole Palmer talking about player welfare.
03:11He said he'd been here in the summer and saw how tired the players were from the schedule of it.
03:16So I had to undertake, but especially Cole Palmer.
03:19I just wondered what you made of those comments, especially relating to Cole.
03:23No, obviously you want not just Cole, or Cole's a magnificent player.
03:28You want every player in football to be at their very best, to be at the top of their health,
03:33to be able to give the fans what they want to see they do.
03:37They pay a lot of money to follow us, to watch us.
03:40But in terms of getting involved in that stuff, I think you speak about the Club World Cup.
03:45And yeah, it's been a difficult schedule for the players,
03:48but I don't think any of them regret that experience,
03:51which was an incredible experience for them and for the club.
03:54You want to find a balance?
03:55Do I have the answer to that?
03:57We're 100% not.
03:59So I understand it from both sides.
04:02Finally for me, there was some criticism after the previous Arsenal game in the Carabao Cup in terms of tactics.
04:09Does it almost suit you at this time a bit better to actually use those tactics in this game?
04:14I'm just wondering how you go into this game approaching that.
04:18I think large spells of the game.
04:20You're always disappointed to lose out to one of your London rivals in a semi-final of a cup competition.
04:29I think there were availability issues.
04:33Not an excuse.
04:35It's a fact in both games.
04:36The first leg, I was here for four days.
04:39So we have to look at it with the right context.
04:41There was a really, really good structure about us without the ball.
04:44With the ball, maybe we could have been more front-footed in terms of going out to win the game.
04:49There was a clear idea that the players carried out very well.
04:52We didn't get the result that we wanted, and we want that to change on Sunday.
04:56Thanks, Chris.
04:57Nib?
04:58Good afternoon.
04:59Good afternoon.
05:01Mikel Arteta has been at Arsenal for just over six years.
05:04They had highs, they had lows.
05:06But in general, how impressive he's been with the support he's been receiving,
05:09and how important is that stability, especially for a young manager in such a big club?
05:13I've been impressed with him.
05:15The support he's received is because probably day in, day out,
05:20they see the great work that he does, and they support the process with which he's worked too.
05:24They're an incredibly well-coached team in every aspect of the game,
05:27whether they compress really high, they're compact shape in the low blocks,
05:32they're fantastic defensively, obviously set plays, they're real coached,
05:35and they play very good football as well.
05:37They're all around a very good team, and that's why they're in the situation they're in at the moment.
05:41It's my job and the players' job is to try and find that weakness and try to enjoy what's going
05:47to be a really,
05:48really big game on Sunday.
05:49Your upcoming league games, Arsenal, Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Man City, Man United,
05:56most likely the most challenging period you had so far since you joined Chelsea in the league.
06:00What's the mindset of going into this very typical period and trying to finish with this?
06:05Firstly, it's to take it game by game.
06:09I've had this conversation with you guys before.
06:11The Premier League is so difficult every week.
06:13Every week, the challenges that you face, the different tactical problems that you have,
06:18the physicality of the league.
06:20I don't judge one game as harder than the other.
06:24What happens against the higher teams in the league is they're more open because they want to attack more.
06:30There's different tactical things that you can work on.
06:33For me, I'm very happy with this group.
06:34I'm happy with the start that we've made.
06:37We've won 8 out of 12.
06:38It should be 10 out of 12.
06:40That's not bad.
06:41It's not a bad foundation to start from.
06:43So we just need to stay confident and focused that we have to just take each game as it comes.
06:48Can I ask you specifically about two Arsenal players that scored against Spurs recently?
06:52Jokeres and Ricci Eza.
06:54What do you think they've added to this version of Arsenal compared to previous years?
06:58I've worked with Victor.
07:00I've worked with him with Brighton's under-23s.
07:02I saw him come through to the first team there.
07:06Victor adds a degree of physicality or pace to stretch the game in behind.
07:10I think he's starting to build his confidence and he's shown he can score goals,
07:14which is what every striker wants to do.
07:16Jokeres, again, I've come across him many times.
07:19I remember watching him in the Championship then and thinking what an outstanding talent he is.
07:22They've got talented players throughout the pitch.
07:24They've got physicality throughout their team.
07:27And we know it's going to be a difficult game.
07:28What I would say is they also know it's going to be a very difficult game for them.
07:32Thanks, Nib.
07:33Nizar?
07:34I just wanted to ask, you know, it's going to be a very busy period again now.
07:38You've had the sort of two weeks off and obviously there's a difficult one of fixtures.
07:43I think the Octosupercomputer said that, you know,
07:45you've had the most difficult one of fixtures of any Premier League team for the last 11 games.
07:49I was wondering how you might handle the challenge of these big matches in multiple contexts.
07:53I'd love to see what this supercomputer looks like.
07:58I don't think about it in that way.
08:00It's the next game.
08:01It's making sure that the players physically, mentally as fresh as possible.
08:06Giving them the time off wasn't just about one game.
08:09It was about the rest of the season.
08:10Hopefully that will pay off.
08:12They've looked very good in training this week.
08:14We've got players coming back from injury as well, which is really, really helpful.
08:18So we just need to stay really calm, really focused and consistent in our process
08:23and tick each game off as it comes.
08:26And it's really tight in the sort of run, you know,
08:28the competition for the Champions League places, the top five that we'll probably end up being.
08:32I was wondering how you sort of see that and how important is that
08:34in terms of all your goals in the season?
08:36Because even in the press releases, you know,
08:39which you were appointed and stuff that you've mentioned as being a target.
08:42Yeah.
08:43Yeah, this club should be in the Champions League.
08:45This club is a Champions League club.
08:48So, yeah, we just have to take it game by game.
08:52If you'd have said to any manager coming in, I think when I took over, we were eighth.
08:56We're now in the race.
08:58We've won four and we've drawn two.
09:00In the two games we've drawn, we're in complete dominance of both games.
09:03That's the reality and that's the facts.
09:04So I like to look at that.
09:05It gives me confidence in the group that we can be successful in a short and long time.
09:10Thanks, Nizal.
09:11Simon?
09:26To your first question, the players have incredible support, both on and off the pitch.
09:31They had a meeting with Dr. Michael Bennett today, actually, about his involvement in the club in terms of helping
09:38them with anything off the pitch.
09:41In terms of social media, look, the generation now, it's a part of the younger generations.
09:47It's the part of their life.
09:49My children are on it.
09:50It's the way that they communicate.
09:51It's the way that they live.
09:52I'm a little bit older, so I've missed out on that, fortunately.
09:56Yeah, in a perfect world, the players don't take notice of what's on social media, but the reality is they
10:02do because they're human beings.
10:03It's very easy to write whatever you want with no consequence when you're on social media.
10:09And I hope that the players who are on it and do take those things in, take in the fact
10:14as well that it's just noise.
10:16It's a lot of people with a lot of opinions.
10:18Some are valid.
10:19Some come from a place where it's probably not a good place.
10:23And sort of getting back to football, in terms of your left-wing options, of course, Jamie's out at the
10:30moment.
10:31I've had a very small start in the league game since West Ham.
10:34How do you think the two of them have been getting on, though, just generally?
10:37I know Jamie's not home.
10:38Yeah, well, unfortunately for Jamie, showed really, really promising signs and then, unfortunately, got injured against West Ham.
10:45Ghana's shown some really, really good things in my time.
10:48I thought his performance at Hull was very good.
10:50He scored two goals in Arsenal really, really early in my start here.
10:55And he's a very, very good player.
10:57There's a lot of tactical things as well.
10:58It's not just on those players.
11:00It's about finding the right function for the team.
11:03I played with one winger.
11:04I played with two wingers in some games.
11:06I have many different solutions I can use because I have such a good squad.
11:10Thanks, Simon.
11:11Rob?
11:12You talked on Saturday about learning about which players you feel you can and can't rely on.
11:18You're taking that up.
11:20I'm sure the players you've had in mind.
11:22How have the squad responded to that assessment that you made?
11:26I don't know how they've responded to that direct statement.
11:29I don't know what I will say is I really have enjoyed this week.
11:34There's been spoken about all of us, me first, being more accountable to consequence.
11:40And the importance of when we're on top of games is getting that second goal and making the right decision
11:45in the final third.
11:46And again, making sure that on set plays and on manageable moments, we do better.
11:51Because in my time so far, I include the Arsenal games in this.
11:55We've been in every game.
11:58Mainly, we've been in dominance and control of games.
12:00And it's not teams have had real dominance over us.
12:04We've just given goals away.
12:05And that's something that we need to really focus on if we want to be successful this year.
12:09And the feeling like you can't depend on players sometimes to do what you are feels like quite a fundamental
12:16thing.
12:16It's not a technical issue, is it?
12:18Is that something that can easily be worked on?
12:20Yeah, for sure.
12:21For sure.
12:23Every manager will say, I've been here for six weeks.
12:25Every manager will say, you're making consistent assessments as you go.
12:29I'm learning about my group as I go.
12:31I'm learning about each individual, their strengths, what they need to improve.
12:35And it's a good time for me.
12:36I've learned a lot.
12:39But where we want to get to, we want to be successful this year.
12:42And there are going to be real pressure moments.
12:44There are going to be tough games, as you spoke about, PSG or Arsenal on Sunday.
12:47There are going to be moments in games where we are going to be under pressure.
12:50And I need to know which players can stay calm, can stay focused, can stay consistent when those pressure moments
12:57come on.
12:58OK, thanks very much.
13:00Camera's off, please.
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