Liam Rosenior conceded it was the "same story" with Chelsea as their disciplinary issues and set-piece struggles came to the fore in their 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

Rosenior watched on as William Saliba headed Arsenal into a 21st-minute lead after Chelsea failed to deal with Bukayo Saka's inviting corner that was met by Gabriel Magalhaes.

The Blues did, however, halve the deficit through a set-piece of their own when Piero Hincapie headed into his own net, but Mikel Arteta's team would have the final say. 

Jurrien Timber scored the winner from Declan Rice's delivery to seal a huge win for the league leaders, with Chelsea's frustration compounded when Pedro Neto picked up two yellow cards in the space of three minutes. 

Indeed, only Sunderland in 2009-10 and Leicester City in 1994-95 (both eight) have had more different players receive a red card in a Premier League season than Chelsea in 2025-26, with Neto being their seventh.

It was a result that saw Chelsea finish MD28 outside the top five following Liverpool's victory over West Ham a day earlier, and Rosenior insisted that his team must improve two specific areas of their play if they are to secure Champions League qualification. 

"Same story. Two things – anyone watching this game or the previous two games, there are two things we have to improve," Rosenior told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"That is our discipline and defending set-plays and if we can do that, then we can still have a very, very good season.

"To be honest, again for Enzo [Maresca], I have a huge respect for him as a coach and as a man.

"He tried really hard, and I will continue not to speak about what has happened before. We have slipped back into something that I don't like to see."

Rosenior's comments about his side's discipline were backed up by captain Reece James, who added that he remains confident in his team moving forward. 

"We've spoken about it, it's come up a number of times, every time it's someone different, not the same player," James added. "Internally, we need to review and keep improving.

"It's a problem. We are playing in the toughest league in the world. You play against top or bottom 11 v 11 it's tough, 11 v 10 is even harder no matter who you are playing.

"I have no doubt in the team and staff, it didn't go our way today, but we need to regroup and go again."

Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last nine Premier League games against Chelsea (W6 D3), while the Gunners have never lost against the Blues in the competition when facing them as league leaders (W5 D1).

But Chelsea had their chances at Emirates Stadium. Liam Delap saw a goal ruled out for offside late on after Joao Pedro was offside in the build-up, with Chelsea ending the game with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.05 from their nine attempts, slightly lower than Arsenal's 1.13 from their 12 shots. 

However, just putting up a fight against Arteta's title hopefuls was not enough for Rosenior. 

"I don't want to push the league leaders very hard. We're Chelsea, we want to win. Between both boxes, we were very, very good," Rosenior added.

"I felt we were the better team by far in the second half, but we weren't ruthless at the moment.

"Their goalkeeper makes very good saves and at the other end we concede two goals from corners."