Chelsea closed out preseason with a 3-1 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday, a result that offered both encouragement and warning signs with the first Premier League match only eight days away.<\/p>\n
The visitors struck first after Jon Aramburu produced a fine volley just before half-time, but Chelsea responded quickly after the interval. Jo\u00e3o Pedro restored the advantage with a header two minutes into the second half, then settled the contest in the 77th minute by running in behind the defence and finishing calmly into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
Enzo Alonso again opted for a strong line-up, giving a clearer indication of how he may shape his first competitive team against Fulham. Chelsea used the 3-4-2-1 system that brought success at Bayer Leverkusen and that was also seen in last weekend\u2019s 3-0 win over AC Milan, having experimented earlier in preseason with a 4-2-3-1.<\/p>\n
There were some personnel changes from that victory. Robert S\u00e1nchez remained in goal behind Wesley Fofana, Maxence Lacroix and Levi Colwill. Reece James joined Mois\u00e9s Caicedo in midfield, while Pedro Neto and Marco Palestra operated as wingbacks. Up front, Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Cole Palmer and Rogers formed the attacking trio.<\/p>\n
The first half, though, exposed familiar issues. Chelsea were opened up repeatedly, with Real Sociedad creating far more chances and forcing a string of saves from S\u00e1nchez. The visitors had 10 shots to Chelsea\u2019s three before the interval, with the home side stretched by direct passing and too much space in behind the back line.<\/p>\n
Chelsea improved after the restart, but the opening period will leave Alonso with plenty to consider before Fulham arrive.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Pedro Neto stood out among the Chelsea players. Pedro\u2019s two goals took him to seven in five friendlies, while Neto provided the cross for the opener and worked tirelessly in an unfamiliar wing-back role.<\/p>\n
There was also a mixed reaction when Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez came off the bench. His arrival was met first with boos and then with chants of his name, underlining the division he continues to create among supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea ended preseason with a 3-1 win over Real Sociedad, but defensive issues remained clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1836,178,180],"class_list":["post-18504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-friendly","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18504","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=18504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}