Aston Villa v Arsenal, August 2024. Morgan Rogers receives a pass facing his own goal and Declan Rice is immediately on his back. The Villa midfielder takes the ball with the outside of his right foot and swivels into space, leaving Rice behind. The space is quickly filled by Arsenal’s midfield enforcer Thomas Partey, but Rogers knocks it past Partey and races around his back to regather the ball, leaving the Ghanaian splayed on the grass. Their tussle at least buys Rice time to catch up, but as he lunges in to make the tackle, Rogers takes a clever touch and Rice concedes a clumsy foul.
Arsenal would go on to win but it was an afternoon full of moments like that one in which Rogers tormented his opponents. After the game, Mikel Arteta marvelled at his performance. On Sky Sports, Jamie Redknapp compared Rogers to “Jonah Lomu in his prime”, and when you saw the trail of Arsenal bodies left on the floor, you understood exactly what he meant.
