Manager Credits “Special Spirit” as Blues Win from Two Goals Down for First Time in Premier League History
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior was quick to shield his halftime substitutes from blame after a trio of changes inspired a historic 3-2 comeback victory against West Ham at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Facing a chorus of boos at the break, with his side trailing 2-0 after a disorganized first-half display, Rosenior replaced Jorrel Hato, Alejandro Garnacho, and Benoit Badiashile with Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, and Joao Pedro. The move proved inspired, with the substitutes directly involved in all three goals as Chelsea completed the first comeback from a two-goal halftime deficit in the club’s Premier League history.
Despite the clear impact of the changes, Rosenior insisted the first-half failure was a collective issue, not the fault of the individuals withdrawn.
“It’s easy, right? The individuals came off and then people will look at them,” Rosenior said in his post-match comments. “That wasn’t on them. It was a collective poor performance in the first half. I don’t put that just down to the changes I made.”
The manager, who had made seven changes to the side that beat Napoli days earlier, said he understood the fans’ frustration, admitting, “They were right to boo. I would have booed us in the first half.”
The second-half transformation was immediate. Fofana set up Pedro for Chelsea’s first, Cucurella headed the equalizer, and Pedro then assisted Enzo Fernandez’s dramatic stoppage-time winner.
Rosenior instead highlighted the resilience shown by the entire squad. “My biggest learning is that there’s a spirit and a fight, and a resilience in this group that I really like,” he said. “The reaction in the second half tells me we’ve got something really special here.”
For West Ham, the defeat was compounded by a late red card shown to Jean-Clair Todibo for grabbing Joao Pedro’s throat. Manager Nuno Espirito Santo lamented his side’s collapse, noting, “We allowed their centre-half to step in and cross for the first goal. After that, we tried to survive.”
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