Chelsea ended their Asian preseason tour with a 3-3 draw against Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta’zim on Sunday, a result that left several fringe players still searching for a convincing statement.<\/p>\n
The opening period was shaky, but Liam Delap levelled matters before the interval after winning and converting a penalty with a powerful finish. Jamie Gittens then earned another spot-kick on the hour, and Delap dispatched that too. Even so, JDT responded quickly, with a deflected free kick striking Delap and looping beyond Gabriel Slonina.<\/p>\n
Chelsea were then nearly beaten by B\u00e9rgson\u2019s low drive, before an own goal arrived after Mykhailo Mudryk\u2019s cross to spare them late frustration.<\/p>\n
Xabi Alonso selected a very young side, though Tosin Adarabioyo, aged 28, was still used in the centre of a three-man defence. He was the senior figure in the team, but the match did little to support that role. Tosin looked uneasy in a high line, failed to track the JDT move that led to the opening goal, and later lost his composure in an exchange with Kevin Medina, who had also impressed against Chelsea towards the end of 2025.<\/p>\n
The armband went to 21-year-old D\u00e1rio Essugo instead, underlining the youth of the team. Up front, the contest offered Delap and Nicolas Jackson another chance to show where they fit in a squad that now appears to have one spot left alongside Jo\u00e3o Pedro, with Emegha injured.<\/p>\n
Delap\u2019s two penalties were strong, but the broader impression was of an opportunity not fully taken. Jackson was tidier in possession and looked more settled in Alonso\u2019s structure, yet he too failed to meet expectations.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s discipline also looked fragile. Last season\u2019s concerns had prompted moves for Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck, although neither featured here. Without those calmer heads, Chelsea appeared tense and were repeatedly dragged into confrontations, something Alonso would have wanted to avoid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea\u2019s youth-heavy side drew 3-3 with JDT, as Delap scored twice but questions remained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[178,180,182],"class_list":["post-18338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-friendly","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18338","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=18338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}