Arsenal were interested in a deal before Chelsea won the race (Picture: Getty) Morgan Rogers’ camp asked Arsenal to match Chelsea’s £117m transfer bid as he wanted to move to the Gunners, according to reports. Mikel Arteta identified Rogers as one of his top targets at the start of the summer and Arsenal were believed to be leading the race to secure his signature. The Premier League champions were willing to pay around £80m for Rogers, who was part of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for this summer’s World Cup. But Chelsea blew their London rivals out of the water with a stunning £117m deal with Aston Villa, making Rogers the most expensive British player in Premier League history. Exclusive Premier League previews Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free. Rogers said he was joining the ‘biggest club in London’ after switching Villa Park for Stamford Bridge but the Daily Mail says the England midfielder wanted to join Arsenal. The report adds that the player’s camp urged bosses at the Emirates Stadium to match Chelsea’s record-breaking bid as he was ‘keen’ to bolster Arteta’s title-winning squad. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph says Rogers was ‘enthusiastic’ about joining Arteta’s project at Arsenal and was ‘ready to pack his bags’ and move to north London. Chelsea signed Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa (Picture: Getty) Rogers was the first of several summer targets that Arsenal failed to sign during the transfer window. Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez had his heart set on a move to Barcelona, Arsenal refused to pay over the odds for new Liverpool signing Bradley Barcola and Vinicius Junior signed a contract extension at Real Madrid. Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was surprised Arsenal didn’t push harder to sign two-time Champions League winner Barcola from PSG. Rogers was reportedly keen to join Arsenal (Picture: Getty) ‘I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing,’ Carragher said on the latest episode of Stick to Football. ‘For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz. ‘The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start. But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?’ {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"John Terry singles out act that Alonso did during Brighton game that spells well for Chelsea","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/08\/31\/5230901859085403608\/480x270_MP4_5230901859085403608.mp4","description":"He loves to see it.","duration":"T1M","height":480,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/31\/14\/110952603-0-image-a-22_1788181481167.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-31T14:03:31+0100","width":270} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); Rogers has enjoyed a promising start to his Chelsea career, scoring and providing an assist in the first two Premier League games of the season. After completing a stunning move to west London, the 23-year-old England star said: ‘I’m joining the biggest club in London. ‘The way the club wants to go and how it wants to move forward is something I want to be a part of. I think it was just perfect for me. I just can’t
