Rogers Joins Chelsea Greats with Historic Start
West London has a new headline act. Rogers, the £117m forward signed to transform Chelsea’s attack, is wasting no time justifying the fee.
Six minutes. That’s all it took against Hull City.
Slipped in by a sharp pass from Joao Pedro, the 24-year-old didn’t hesitate. One touch to steady himself, then a ruthless, skimming drive into the bottom corner. Low, hard, precise. A finish that screamed confidence and authority, and one that finally punctured Hull’s perfect defensive start to the Premier League season.
Stamford Bridge roared. It felt like the start of a routine home win. It felt like the start of something bigger for Rogers.
Joining an elite Chelsea roll of honour
That goal did more than just open the scoring. It dropped Rogers straight into one of the most exclusive attacking clubs in Chelsea’s Premier League history.
By scoring against Hull, he became only the fifth player ever to register a goal or an assist in each of the club’s first four league games of a season. The other four names are not just familiar; they’re era-defining at Stamford Bridge: Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard.
According to Opta, Drogba set the standard back in 2010/11, exploding out of the blocks with four goals and four assists in the opening month. He bullied defences, dragged Chelsea through games and set the tone for a side that expected to dominate.
Fabregas and Costa then turned the record into a title-winning platform in 2014/15. Fabregas orchestrated everything, laying on six assists in that blistering early run. Costa was pure menace, smashing in seven goals and terrorising centre-backs from the first whistle of the campaign.
Costa wasn’t done there. He repeated the feat in 2016/17, this time with four goals and one assist, again setting up another relentless title charge.
Hazard was the last to join that group before Rogers, starting 2018/19 with two goals and two assists, gliding through games with the kind of authority that made him one of the league’s most feared forwards.
Now, Rogers sits among them. Different era, different Chelsea, same standard of early-season impact. For a new signing still learning his surroundings, to be mentioned in the same breath as Drogba, Fabregas, Costa and Hazard is a serious statement.
Records on one side, familiar problems on the other
But as quickly as Chelsea seized control, they let it slip.
The early goal should have settled them. Instead, it exposed a contrast: sharp and ruthless in attack, fragile and uncertain at the back. Hull grew into the game, sensing hesitation where there should have been authority.
Just before the half-hour mark, the punishment arrived. A lapse in concentration from the Chelsea backline opened the door, and Mohamed Belloumi walked straight through it, levelling the match and silencing the home crowd. One moment of carelessness, one moment of slack defending, and Rogers’ record-breaking start was suddenly a footnote.
Chelsea wobbled. Hull didn’t wait for a second invitation.
Moments later, Belloumi struck again. The Algerian international completed a stunning turnaround, flipping the narrative on its head and leaving the hosts chasing a game they had seemed ready to control.
From that point, the afternoon stopped being about Rogers’ historic company and started being about Chelsea’s old, nagging issue: control. Control of space, control of tempo, control of games they should be winning.
Rogers will leave with another goal, another line in the record books, and another reminder that he has the quality to lead this attack. The numbers put him alongside legends. The performance around him showed just how far this Chelsea side still has to climb if his brilliance is going to mean more than a statistic.
