Xabi Alonso\u2019s first remarks since the summer transfer window closed offered little sign of concern, even after Chelsea reshaped their midfield plans and moved on without Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Friday for the first time since the deadline passed, Alonso could have been expected to sound irritated by the chain of missed targets. Manu Kon\u00e9 was unavailable because Roma would not sell, while Monaco initially agreed to part with Lamine Camara before pulling out of the deal and leaving Chelsea \u201cfurious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez had not actually departed at that stage, but Chelsea still chose to allow the move to Manchester to stand and \u201chonor\u201d the agreement with City. With the player clearly keen to leave, a reversal may have brought more problems than it solved.<\/p>\n
Alonso, appointed in May after the club\u2019s difficult 2025-26 campaign, described the summer as \u201cphase one\u201d of the project. He added that it had been \u201cvery balanced\u201d and is now \u201ccomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked directly about the collapsed Camara move, he said: \u201cI think that we are prepared and happy with the squad and the depth we have. It\u2019s a good balance of players from different stages,\u201d he said. \u201dWe need to build that energy during the week [in training] to perform at the weekends. So far, it has been a good start and now we know who is in the building and it\u2019s good to have that certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The obvious question is whether losing Fern\u00e1ndez without a replacement leaves Chelsea short. For now, that does not appear likely, especially with no European football and a lighter schedule this season.<\/p>\n
Alonso has already been managing without Fern\u00e1ndez, who was a substitute against Fulham but left out against Luton Town and Brighton & Hove Albion. Mois\u00e9s Caicedo has also been limited by injury, featuring only against Brighton before going off 14 minutes after coming on. There is no major alarm, and he is not yet ruled out of facing Arsenal on Sunday. \u201cWe will check [on Saturday].\u201d<\/p>\n
Rom\u00e9o Lavia has started well and may eventually be a stronger fit beside Caicedo in Alonso\u2019s 3-4-2-1 setup, provided both remain fit. Valent\u00edn Barco and Jordan Henderson are the other specialist midfield options, though neither has started in the Premier League. Alonso, who used to play alongside Philipp Lahm in midfield under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, has shown no hesitation in using fullbacks in central roles when needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alonso is unruffled after Chelsea\u2019s midfield changes, with Fern\u00e1ndez gone and depth in focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-19153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19153","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=19153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}