Morgan Rogers exclusive: Attacking star explains why there are 'no excuses' for Aston Villa's inconsistent Premier League form
As close friends who share a popular goal celebration, it will be no surprise to learn Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer take considerable pleasure in watching each other’s success.
Yet on Saturday evening all that will be put on hold for a couple of hours as they and their teams do battle in a match which may have major ramifications in the race to reach next season’s Champions League.
Ninth-placed Villa v fifth-placed Chelsea is undoubtedly the pick of the day’s fixtures in the top half of the Premier League.
“Cole is one of my closest friends, not just in football but in life,” Rogers tells the Express & Star. “To see him doing so well makes me happy and puts a smile on my face.
“But of course, when we play him I don’t want to see him do well, it is one of those things.
“On Saturday night, he is just another player. Before and after he is my friend but when we are playing, everyone is the same.”
Perhaps somewhere in a parallel universe Palmer and Halesowen-born Rogers, who first met while playing England youth internationals and then became team-mates at Manchester City’s academy, are both preparing to play for Pep Guardiola’s side against Liverpool on Sunday.
But fate dictated their futures lay away from the Etihad, Palmer’s at Chelsea, for whom he has scored 39 goals in 73 appearances since moving for £40million in the summer of 2023 and Rogers at Villa, where in the space of a year since arriving from Middlesbrough he has joined Emi Martinez, Ollie Watkins and Youri Tielemans as the most important members of Unai Emery’s squad.
Tielemans is the only player to have played more minutes than Rogers across all competitions this season, due in part to the latter having been suspended for last month’s 2-1 win over Leicester, the only Premier League match he has not started.
