{"id":824770,"date":"2026-08-25T00:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T00:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/824770\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T00:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T00:54:14","slug":"glaring-weakness-in-goal-remains-but-early-signs-xabi-alonsos-chelsea-should-be-fun-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/824770\/","title":{"rendered":"Glaring weakness in goal remains but early signs Xabi Alonso\u2019s Chelsea should be fun | Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a weekend on which pretty much every potential challenger<\/a> to Arsenal had demonstrated their flaws<\/a>, there was a sense, perhaps even a need, for Chelsea to emerge as a serious contender \u2013 if only to prevent the title race becoming a procession. And while they were far from flawless, there were at least some indications that they could mount some kind of challenge.<\/p>\n

They looked extremely dangerous in the final third, and Cole Palmer was involved in all three Chelsea<\/a> goals, perhaps benefiting from a first summer off in three years. But they were rather less impressive through midfield or at the back, despite Josh Acheampong\u2019s all-action performance, while goalkeeper remains the problem it has been since Thibaut Courtois left.<\/p>\n

It could easily have gone wrong: in the final quarter-hour; Antonee Robinson lofted an effort wide with Robert S\u00e1nchez off his line and Ryan Sessegnon smacked a shot from a narrow angle straight at the Spanish keeper. But neither opportunity was taken and so Chelsea got Xabi Alonso\u2019s reign off to a winning start.<\/p>\n

At this stage, performances and learning the system are probably the most important thing, but if there is to be some sort of dart at the title, results matter if only to keep Chelsea somewhere near the race until the point at which Alonso\u2019s principles are absorbed and they do find something close to top form.<\/p>\n

Perhaps what\u2019s most striking, though, is how different the approach is<\/a> to Enzo Maresca\u2019s. Where Maresca prioritised control to often stultifying effect, Alonso\u2019s game is based on rapid turnovers and transition. It\u2019ll probably settle down as his systems become deeper rooted but there was a sense of recklessness at times to their play. It was harum-scarum, end-to-end, thrilling stuff, which is all very well to watch, and may even come as a relief after the sterility of Maresca<\/a> and the shambles of Liam Rosenior<\/a>, but may not be great for consistency or sustained runs of form.<\/p>\n

Alonso could hardly have dreamed of a quicker start, Jo\u00e3o Pedro putting Chelsea ahead after 31 seconds, matching the record for the quickest goal scored in the reign of a Premier League manager, David Unsworth\u2019s goal \u2013 also against Fulham \u2013 in David Moyes\u2019s first game in charge of Everton<\/a> in March 2002. Jo\u00e3o Pedro had scored eight goals in eight pre-season games; and this a player Maresca told not to focus on scoring goals shortly before he went on a run of seven games without a shot. That was a first indication of a forward line starting to show signs of an impressive understanding. All three combined for the third goal, Morgan Rogers flicking on for Jo\u00e3o Pedro who held the ball up for the overlapping Palmer to slip his shot cleverly between Bernd Leno\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Pedro (second from left), Cole Palmer (second from right) and Morgan Rogers (right) combined impressively on their first outing as Chelsea\u2019s front three. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Alonso\u2019s first go at finding a pattern amid the legions of players assembled by BlueCo involved a midfield made up of two players who, despite being at Chelsea together for the past three years, had never previously been paired in the centre: Rom\u00e9o Lavia and Reece James. It was not entirely by choice: Mois\u00e9s Caicedo was left out as a precaution while Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez remained on the bench until the 65th minute as Manchester City continue their pursuit of him<\/a>. And it didn\u2019t entirely work. It may look a defensively robust pairing but there were long spells when Fulham had control of midfield.<\/p>\n

A feature of Alonso\u2019s approach, and one of the reasons it takes time and commitment to learn \u2013 qualities that were notably lacking at Real Madrid \u2013 is that players can emerge in unexpected positions. Which doesn\u2019t entirely explain how the right-sided centre-back Maxence Lacroix found himself running on to Palmer\u2019s pass in the Fulham<\/a> box but, having got there, he demonstrated great poise to skip around Jorge Cuenca and cut the ball back for Rogers to score his first Chelsea goal.<\/p>\n

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Yet for all that was new and positive, and for all that was raw and unintentionally exciting, there was one glaring and inexplicably familiar failing<\/a> for Chelsea: in goal. S\u00e1nchez\u2019s positioning seemed very strange for Fulham\u2019s first goal, drilled in at his near post by Josh King (who also benefited from a bizarrely ineffectual attempt to track from Rogers), and while it was a far less glaring error, he pushed Timothy Castagne\u2019s shot straight to Gonzalo Garc\u00eda for Fulham\u2019s second.<\/p>\n

Although S\u00e1nchez doesn\u2019t perhaps quite deserve the negative reputation he has among certain Chelsea fans, he did make a league-high five errors leading to goals in 2024-25 and three last season. It remains mystifying that a club that signs wide forwards by the dozen<\/a> continues to refuse to invest in a top-class goalkeeper. That may yet hold Chelsea back.<\/p>\n

Generally, though, Alonso can be satisfied with his start: a win against Chelsea\u2019s local rivals, an impressive display from Acheampong, a number of fluent interactions from his front three and plenty of signs of his system beginning to take hold, with a few obvious improvements to be made. And from the point of view of fans and casual observers, it looks like it should be fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a weekend on which pretty much every potential challenger to Arsenal had demonstrated their flaws, there was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-824770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}