The first friendly of the Xabi Alonso era at Chelsea not played behind closed doors saw the Blues battle to a chaotic 6–4 win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday.
A youthful side was made to work hard for the first hour as goals from Dastan Satpayev and Dário Essugo were canceled out in the first half.
Omari Kellyman and Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli were introduced at the break, before Alonso’s big names were readied around the hour mark. The likes of Cole Palmer, Estêvão, João Pedro, Levi Colwill and Marco Palestra all joined with Chelsea 3–2 down, however, after some awkward defending allowed Dylan Scicluna to put Western Sydney ahead.
The final 25 minutes quickly turned into the ‘Pedro Show’ as Chelsea’s undisputed starting striker set up an equalizer and netted three goals of his own to take the game away from the hosts and seal a breathless start to Alonso’s tenure.
Alonso’s First Formation Hint
One of the biggest questions about Alonso was his preferred formation. A 3-4-2-1 yielded unprecedented success in the Bundesliga before a switch to a 4-2-3-1 at Real Madrid.
Behind-closed-doors friendlies against Bromley and Crawley Town saw Alonso persist with a four-back setup and that 4-2-3-1 remained in place in Sydney. Even out of possession, Chelsea defended in a 4-4-2.
Clearly, this does not mean Alonso will be wedded to this system at Chelsea and we may even see changes once the manager gets more of his first-team stars back in action, but we are now at three games out of three in which the 4-2-3-1 has been Alonso’s preferred setup.
An Inexperienced Lineup Plagued by ... Inexperience
For the first hour of this game, Alonso went very young. Liam Delap, Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Acheampong and Dário Essugo were the only first-teamers to start, with the rest of the group made up of academy prospects.
A lineup like that is clearly not comparable to Alonso’s strongest XI, or even that which took the field for the final 30 minutes here, and the gulf in experience was painfully evident for the youngsters, many of whom looked flustered by the competition.
The raft of second-half substitutions brought a predictable change as Chelsea began to flex their quality and took the game away from their hosts who, despite their superior energy, just could not cope with Chelsea’s big-money stars.
Delap Misses Huge Opportunity to Shine
Chelsea are overflowing with strikers, but circumstances handed Liam Delap the chance to impress from the start here. Pedro came off the bench, Emmanuel Emegha is injured and Nicolas Jackson is yet to join up with the squad following the World Cup, so Delap will have known a dominant performance here would have worked wonders for his reputation.
The Blues got nothing of the sort from Delap during his hour on the pitch as a series of poor passes and evident signs of frustration made sure he was overshadowed by 17-year-old Satpayev, whose early opener displayed a ruthlessness not seen from Delap since his time with Ipswich Town.
Satpayev is likely to leave on loan but will almost certainly be followed out the door by at least one senior striker—likely two if Chelsea seal their desired move for Brighton & Hove Albion’s Danny Welbeck.
Pedro isn’t going anywhere—that was clear even before his hat trick here—leaving Delap, Jackson and Emegha to fight it out for just one spot in Alonso’s squad. This performance did Delap’s case no favors.
Plenty of Work to Do
This is a classic case of not overreacting to a friendly. Chelsea were missing big names and those involved here were by no means in their sharpest conditions.
Western Sydney were good value for their goals and could even argue their case for being the better team here, particularly during the first hour, as they caused both iterations of Chelsea’s defense some serious problems.
Playing out from the back and working through the press both proved really problematic for Chelsea’s back line in what was undoubtedly an uncomfortable start to the Alonso era.
Crucially, the bigger names will grow in prominence over the next few weeks, meaning we should see less of the inexperience and more of the quality moving forwards. Only then will a fair assessment of Alonso’s first few months be possible.
