Rosenior explains James and Neto absences, proud of Palmer and Estevao

The Blues were unable to overturn the one-goal deficit from the first leg of the semi-final despite matching Premier League leaders Arsenal throughout a game of few chances at the Emirates Stadium. Ulitmately, a late breakaway as we pushed to equalise the aggregate score made it 1-0 to the Gunners on the night and 4-2 overall.

Rosenior was obviously disappointed his side were unable to book a place in the final at Wembley, but was full of praise for the way two of his Blues performed when they come off the bench with 30 minutes remaining, showing exactly the kind of spirit he is looking for from his players.

'Estevao, I have to say, for him at 18 years old to go through something very personal for him, to fly to Brazil and to fly back in two days, to make sure he could play in this game, that says everything about the character and spirit I want for this team,' said our head coach.

'And Cole. Cole gave us an incredible 90-minute performance at the weekend when we fought back against West Ham. He’s a gem, we have to take care of him and make sure he’s ready for the whole of the season. But when he came on, his moments were top.

'So all in all we're disappointed not to go through, albeit against a very good team, but we can’t let this set-back affect our future.'

However, less positive was the absence from the squad of our skipper James and winger Neto, with Rosenior confirming both were ruled out of the semi-final late on due to injury.

'Pedro and Reece have small knocks. They were just in too much pain for tonight,' he explained.

'They are giving everything, they would always put their hand up to play. Reece is an incredible captain and leader, Pedro’s an outstanding professional and player.'

The man in the Chelsea dugout also confirmed that the absence of those two Blues played a part in his decision to switch to a back three from the start of our semi-final in north London, although there were several other factors involved as well.

'The availability of your players always affects your system,' Rosenior continued.

'The opposition’s system, where you are in terms of your fitness levels, in terms of the intensity levels we’ve put into games. Against West Ham we battled until the 97th minute trying to get ourselves back from 2-0 down. The emotions of Napoli.

'You take all of these things into account to give yourselves the best chance to try to win a game of football.'

Unfortunately that victory was not to be on this occasion, but the Blues will regroup and attempt to bounce straight back when we travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday.

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