Jamie Carragher hailed Morgan Rogers as a ‘special’ talent after Aston Villa’s dramatic 3-2 win over West Ham, claiming the midfielder will likely be ‘key’ if the club are to win the Premier League title.
Villa had looked on the right track to suffer their first defeat since early November after Mateus Fernandes and Jarrod Bowen found the web either side of Konstantinos Mavropanos’ own goal on the London Stadium on Sunday.
However the visitors clawed themselves back into the competition within the second period, with Rogers keeping his cool to squeeze the ball past Alphonse Areola and equalise within the fiftieth minute.
Rogers, last season’s PFA Young Player of the Yr, was not done there, though, with the 23-year-old providing the standout moment of quality within the match to make sure Unai Emery’s men got here away with all three points.
After being fed by Victor Lindelof, the England international took two touches before unleashing a dipping 25-yard strike to beat Areola and send Villa’s away support right into a frenzy.
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Emery’s side held firm to remain inside three points of top-of-the-table Arsenal, who survived a late scare to defeat Wolves on Saturday. Manchester City, meanwhile, held onto second place after cruising to a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Talk of Villa being outsiders for the title has grown louder in recent weeks, with the team riding a nine-match winning streak in all competitions heading into their gruelling winter schedule.
The Villains will look to choose up where they left off once they return to top-flight motion at home to Manchester United in every week’s time.
‘The upturn in form since what we saw in those first few weeks of the season is just an entire contrast,’ ex-Liverpool and England defender Carragher said on Sky Sports following Villa’s win.
‘But we return to the manager so much and rightly so. I feel there’s only Pep Guardiola within the Premier League right away who’s a greater manager than Unai Emery.
‘Once you actually have a look at his CV and what he’s actually done in his profession, there’s some top managers within the league but, as I said, he’s got an amazing CV and he’s done an excellent job as well.
‘But Morgan Rogers is something special.’
In accordance with Carragher, Emery has ‘among the best players within the Premier League’ to call on in Rogers.
‘He just appears to be considered one of those players who kind of got here from nowhere in some ways,’ he added.
‘They signed him from Middlesbrough for not an enormous fee and he’s gone on right away to not only being among the best young players within the Premier League, which is what he was last season, PFA Young Player of the Yr, he’s now looking like among the best players within the Premier League.
‘That may very well be key if Aston Villa do feel that they might go on and contest the league title or actually go on and win it.’
On Rogers’ breathtaking 79th-minute winner, Carragher continued: ‘It’s not a one-off.
‘Now we have seen it before, this method, but we normally see it on free-kicks.
‘We saw it at Leeds, he gets the goal there, and it’s knuckle ball-esque let’s assume.
‘What I haven’t seen before is people getting goals in open play using this method. It’s obviously so much easier with the free-kick because the ball is stationary.’
Carragher believes Morgan’s influence at Villa can now be likened to that of Erling Haaland at Manchester City and Declan Rice at Arsenal.
‘That is what’s making him a very special player within the Premier League. He’s seen a way that we’ve seen before,’ he went on.
‘But seeing it in free play is something that he should have worked on in training as well and that’s why I am going back to: can Aston Villa win the title?
‘I don’t think they will but when you are to win a title, and let’s say Manchester City go and win the title, we’d say, “OK, they’ve got Erling Haaland who may very well be the very best player within the league”, and if I have a look at Arsenal then I feel of Declan Rice. I see him as perhaps a Player of the Yr candidate.
‘But with Aston Villa, who could drive them to the title? Who’s that special that might almost be head and shoulders above everybody within the Premier League? The one player I have a look at is Morgan Rogers.
‘He was PFA Young Player of the Yr. Could he go on and be the PFA Player of the Yr this season and drag Villa really near a league title?’
Barring a sudden drop of form or injury, Rogers appears a shoo-in for a spot in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
And with Rogers going from strength to strength, Carragher feels it shouldn’t be out of the query that the midfielder could overtake Jude Bellingham within the pecking order to start out because the Three Lions’ No.10.
He explained: ‘He’s been considered one of those players, probably together with Elliot Anderson, within the last six months, for England who most individuals have a look at and think, “Oh, within the England team? That’s a daring move”, however the longer they’re in there the more you’re thinking that they ought to be in there.
‘But what I might say is Morgan Rogers is competing with arguably our greatest player right away, he plays for Real Madrid, in Jude Bellingham.
‘Bellingham played the last England game and I feel within the eyes of most and mine, I need to admit that, I feel: once we get to the World Cup, Jude Bellingham will likely be playing in that position.
‘However the more I watch Rogers play, and I actually think Thomas Tuchel thinks like this, this shouldn’t be a simple decision that Bellingham comes back in.
‘It is a real fight for Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers to see who’s going to play in that No.10 position behind Harry Kane and if Rogers keeps playing like that then it’s actually not a given.’
Are Aston Villa real title contenders?
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