Joao Pedro, Palmer and Rogers cannot carry Chelsea, says Colwill

Chelsea cannot rely on their front three of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro all season and must use the international break to work on their overall team play.

That is the view of defender Levi Colwill, who said the Blues have plenty of room for improvement after Friday's chastening 3-0 derby defeat to Brentford.

Goals from Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fabio Carvalho condemned Chelsea to a dispiriting loss at the Gtech Community Stadium, with Xabi Alonso's men now winless in three Premier League games (D1 L2).

They had started their first campaign under the Spaniard well, with their star-studded frontline impressing in high-scoring wins over Fulham (3-2) and Brighton (4-3).

Joao Pedro, who missed Friday's game due to a knee issue, has six goal involvements in the Premier League already this season (three goals, three assists), while Palmer (two goals, two assists) and Rogers (three goals, one assist) have four each.

Of the Blues' 10 Premier League goals this season, only one – Romeo Lavia's opener versus Brighton – has not involved at least one of that trio as the scorer or the assister.

But Colwill feels everyone else in the Chelsea setup needs to step up following the three-week hiatus.

"We can't rely on the front three to pull us out of danger; the rest of us have to try to help as much as possible," he told the club's website.

"The defence, the midfield and the attackers, we all need to help each other much more. We've definitely got a lot of room to improve."

Chelsea's 12 goals conceded are the most of any Premier League team going into the weekend's action, and they have conceded at least twice in all five of their games under Alonso in the competition.

The former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid boss is just the sixth manager to achieve that unwanted feat, after Mick McCarthy, Sammy Lee, Terry Connor, Slavisa Jokanovic and Scott Parker.

"It was tough," Colwill continued. "First of all, conceding from a set-piece isn't the best, and then we tried to push and maybe over-exposed ourselves and played some passes we shouldn't and forced it.

"I feel we needed to relax and not push too hard for the equaliser; we needed to believe it would come if we continued playing our football. 

"But I think we pushed too hard to get it and they hurt us on the counter. They got the second goal and then the third goal really hit home and hurt.

"In the second half we weren't good enough, obviously, and we've got a lot to work on during the international break."

Chelsea's next game is at home to Bournemouth on October 10, with a trip to Everton to follow one week later.