Xabi Alonso did not hide his frustration after Chelsea\u2019s latest outing, describing his own side as \u201csoft\u201d as familiar defensive problems again came into focus.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the game, he made clear that the issue is not simply about entertainment or open football, but about how Chelsea manage key moments when they are in control. \u201cIt’s all maybe entertaining,\u201d Alonso said after the game. \u201cBut I hope that one day you say it was a boring game and we win, and we don’t give these entertaining moments, but for sure, it kind of repeats some patterns that we are making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take time to, or it will take moments to, fix them when we get the lead, and you still need to be competing and not to give the chance so easily for them to come back, especially in the first goal, we can do much better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was too soft to give them this hope because until then we were controlling, we were creating chances, but that momentum that we had changed the mood and the score of the game, and it’s something that we need to be talking about, we address and we will get better, but it’s having an impact on our performances at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea have now conceded 12 goals in six games across all competitions to start the season. Across three matches in six days last week, Arsenal, Leeds United and Hull scored seven times against a defence that has repeatedly looked vulnerable.<\/p>\n
The problems have gone beyond isolated errors. Poor organisation, lapses in judgment and a lack of defensive authority have become recurring features at Stamford Bridge. That was reflected again when Alonso was asked whether he could see a real desire to defend from his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do better, we can do better for sure,\u201d Alonso admitted. \u201cWe need to know that even when we have the lead, a very important part of the game is to hold together, to keep the distances, to go intense in the situations to defend. I’m sure that we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be aware that from any situation, any team in the Premier League can hurt you. Today it was from a long ball, two bounces, the way it happened. You need to be very aware, very ready that the danger can come from any situation. If you are soft or if you are not prepared, you will get punished, and we have been punished that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still the argument that Chelsea are adapting to Alonso\u2019s approach. The back three with wingbacks has been the main structure this season, although he has also used a back four in some matches, including against Hull.<\/p>\n
Even so, several players are also underperforming. Levi Colwill has found the return from an ACL injury difficult, Jorrel Hato has been inconsistent, and his failure to deal with the ball before Hull\u2019s second goal was costly. Wesley Fofana, Maxence Lacroix, Malo Gusto and Josh Acheampong have also been involved in a defence that remains far from secure.<\/p>\n
Robert S\u00e1nchez was eventually replaced after making one error too many, with Emiliano Mart\u00ednez brought in to steady things. But the two-time goalkeeper of the year award-winner has also made a mistake-ridden start to his Stamford Bridge spell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alonso says Chelsea are too soft defensively after repeated errors, poor shape, and a shaky start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,2026],"tags":[1836],"class_list":["post-19399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-goalkeepers","tag-2026-27-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19399","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=19399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}