Chelsea’s draw with Leeds ‘bitter pill’ for Rosenior

Liam Rosenior said Chelsea’s failure to stay calm under pressure was a “bitter pill” as they blew a two-goal advantage in their 2-2 draw with Leeds on Tuesday.

Rosenior’s side were on course for a fifth successive Premier League victory thanks to Joao Pedro’s opener and Cole Palmer’s penalty.

But Chelsea collapsed in the closing stages at Stamford Bridge, with Lukas Nmecha’s penalty giving Leeds a lifeline before Noah Okafor tapped in the equaliser.

The fifth-placed Blues’ collapse cost them the chance to move above Manchester United into fourth place, leaving Rosenior to rue their careless defending.

“Two key moments in the game that we don’t take care of. We don’t stay calm. How the play gets there, we make a few poor decisions in the way we press and we give away a penalty,” he said.

“I can’t remember Leeds having a shot or a moment in the game. Some of our football in possession, our press and our energy was everything I wanted to see.

“That makes it even more of a bitter pill to swallow that we haven’t won the game.”

Leeds’ equaliser owed as much to Jayden Bogle’s tenacity in outmuscling Chelsea’s defence as it did to the Blues’ own hesitancy in dealing with the danger, though Rosenior believed his team should have had a free-kick.

“The lad handballs it,” he said. “It affects my players in that moment. They think it’s a handball, they switch off, we don’t clear the ball and they score. Then for 25 minutes it was wave after wave of attack.”

Rosenior has made an encouraging start to his reign since arriving from Strasbourg to replace Enzo Maresca in January.

But alongside their League Cup semi-final exit to Arsenal, this was another sign that the former Hull boss still has much to work on.

“We have to make sure we take care of moments and be professional,” Rosenior said.

“It’s not about reacting to setbacks. You’re always going to have a spell in the game when you’re not on top.

“The ridiculous thing for us is that they’ve managed to score two goals in a five-minute period when for the other 90 minutes we were by far the better team.”