Chelsea resumed their preseason with a convincing 3-0 victory over AC Milan in Jakarta on Saturday, a result that offered a clearer glimpse of Xabi Alonso\u2019s thinking as his first summer in charge develops.<\/p>\n
The key stretch came immediately after the interval. Pedro finished from close range just 30 seconds into the second half to double the advantage, before Mois\u00e9s Caicedo added a volley from a corner in the 50th minute to put the game beyond reach.<\/p>\n
Overall, it was a composed display from Chelsea, who return to action in less than 24 hours against Malaysian outfit Johor Darul Ta\u2019zim. More importantly, the match hinted at how Alonso may choose to shape his side. While a 4-2-3-1 has been used up to this point, this contest brought the first look at the 3-4-2-1 that brought him success at Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
That system gave the attack a smoother edge in the first half, with Pedro, Cole Palmer and Danny Welbeck combining well. It also appeared to suit a back line built around three natural center backs, with Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato and Josh Acheampong all on the pitch together.<\/p>\n
The setup also allowed Marco Palestra to underline why Chelsea moved for him this summer. Operating from the left side of midfield, he pushed forward constantly and drifted into central areas, showing the versatility that stood out during his signing.<\/p>\n
On the opposite side, Pedro Neto started and contributed well, including the cross that helped create Chelsea\u2019s second goal. Geovany Quenda later came on for Neto and linked up neatly with Palestra, reinforcing the range of options available if Alonso keeps this shape.<\/p>\n
Acheampong was another clear beneficiary. Playing on the right of the back three against Rafael Le\u00e3o, he delivered a strong performance, capped by an excellent first-half challenge to stop the winger.<\/p>\n
Chelsea also made their mark from set pieces, scoring twice from corners, something Austin MacPhee will have noted with satisfaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea beat AC Milan 3-0 in Jakarta, with Alonso\u2019s 3-4-2-1, Palestra and set pieces standing out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[1859,1973],"class_list":["post-18328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-austin-macphee","tag-pedro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}