{"id":932780,"date":"2026-10-14T13:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932780\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:56:09","slug":"how-chelsea-used-extended-international-break-to-positive-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932780\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chelsea used extended international break to positive effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

The extended three-week international break may have benefited Chelsea<\/a> more than any other team in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Although it is a small sample size, Saturday’s 5-1 victory<\/a> over Bournemouth<\/a> appeared to support that theory, with senior club officials speaking before kick-off about how the break had come at the right time for the Blues.<\/p>\n

Before the pause, it was clear new manager Xabi Alonso was searching for answers within his system, having moved to a back three.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> conceded a league-high 12 goals before the break but at times had been able to outscore opponents through the brilliance of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro.<\/p>\n

But the approach looked unsustainable.<\/p>\n

A 3-0 defeat at Brentford<\/a> before the break underlined the need for adjustments, and Alonso made several against Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> defended deeper, pressed in a different shape, and altered their build-up play to give Alonso’s side a more solid look.<\/p>\n

After the match, Joao Pedro, who scored twice, said: “The international break was a long time. We had time to work, to fix the mistakes against Brentford<\/a>, and we got a great result.”<\/p>\n

The return of key midfielder Moises Caicedo was a major factor.<\/p>\n

Ecuadorian Caicedo had played only 14 minutes as a substitute before Saturday after suffering a recurrence of a calf injury during a brief appearance against Brighton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His quality in possession and ability to win the ball back made a huge difference.<\/p>\n

In an unguarded moment at the end of his media duties at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Alonso was particularly effusive about Caicedo’s return, saying: “Wow, I couldn’t wait to have him back to be honest because with Moi on the pitch everything looks more in place.<\/p>\n

“He is so important and we want to have him around. It was very good news.”<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro, who has the most goal involvements in the Premier League this season with eight (five goals and three assists), was also back.<\/p>\n

As were Marco Palestra and Emmanuel Emegha, both named among the substitutes.<\/p>\n

Palmer withdrew from England duty, drawing a reaction from Thomas Tuchel,<\/a> but was fit to play the full 90 minutes for Chelsea<\/a> and looked refreshed.<\/p>\n

He spent part of the break on holiday, like the majority of the squad, while following an individual rehabilitation programme with a private fitness coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The extended three-week international break may have benefited Chelsea more than any other team in the Premier League.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-932780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}