Xabi Alonso Lists Eight Things Which Are Going Wrong for Chelsea

Friday’s dreadful 3–0 defeat to Brentford exposed a lot of issues which Alonso has been fretting over all season.

Xabi Alonso had some grievances to get off his chest on Friday night. | John Walton/PA Images/Getty Images

LONDON — At the end of the most chastening evening of Xabi Alonso’s brief Chelsea tenure, the Basque boss called for some patience.

“It’s a process,” he warned assembled media after watching his team get ruthlessly dismantled by Brentford on Friday evening. “It takes time for them to feel it and at the moment we are not feeling it fully to compete for the whole game.”

Considering the number of grievances which Alonso willingly rattled off in the clammy press room of the Gtech Community Stadium, it’s perhaps understandable that the incoming coach expects it to take some time to fix these issues.

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Consistency

It was a chastening evening for Xabi Alonso at Brentford. | Harriet Lander/Chelsea FC/Getty Images

“We have dropped our consistency,” Alonso fretted, referring to Chelsea’s inability to sustain a level of performance within the same match, let alone across multiple weekends.

Alonso is yet to enjoy 90 convincing minutes from his squad, with each contest beset by significant swathes in which the opposition are on top. Against Brentford, Chelsea never had a spell of their own in the ascendancy.

It was a largely even opening hour, with both teams frustrating one another by trying to rapidly speed forward after a turnover only to cede possession and force the process to restart. However, once Brentford struck the first blow, Chelsea wilted like cardboard in the rain. There were many causes for this collapse, but Alonso pinpointed to the intangibles first.

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Competitive Mentality

Jordan Henderson made an unhappy Chelsea debut. | Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Alonso curiously referred to a lack of the “competitive mentality needed in the second half” from his side. Yet, this should have been the lineup with the strongest mental fortitude at his disposal.

For the first time since the final days of John Terry, Chelsea named a player in their mid-30s in the starting XI of a Premier League fixture. Danny Welbeck was joined by Jordan Henderson in Chelsea’s oldest matchday roster since May 2023. However, that seniority could not foster an attitude which Alonso found acceptable.

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Set Pieces

Chelsea were punished on a set-piece—again. | Rob Newell/CameraSport/Getty Images

Alonso acknowledged that Chelsea have an issue defending set pieces but warned that was far from their only problem, which prompted this array of other issues. Center back Levi Colwill was more willing to accept the recurring ineptitude of Chelsea’s dead-ball defending:

“At times we’ve been bullied in the box.”

In fairness to Alonso, this is not a new issue of his making: Since the start of last season, Chelsea have conceded 22 set-piece goals, more than any other Premier League team.

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Duels

Igor Thiago (center) scored his first Premier League goal of the season for Brentford against Chelsea. | Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images

Alonso specifically name-checked “duels” as an area in which Chelsea need to improve. Intriguingly, the Blues actually dominated these figures at the Gtech, beating Brentford on the ground (winning 59% of such battles) and in the air (53%), per FotMob. Yet, Alonso’s gut feeling—unsubstantiated or otherwise—speaks to the meek nature of a side which is still under experimentation.

Henderson was joined in the center of the park by Valentín Barco, who won the majority of his duels, scurrying around and snapping at the heels of the red and white shirts without actually disrupting them too much. The diminutive midfielder was notably out-jumped by Jannik Schuster who nodded the ball across for Jaidon Anthony’s opener at a corner.

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Buildup

Jordan Henderson and Valentín Barco did not enjoy passing the ball forward. | Opta Analyst

This was the most alarming aspect of Chelsea’s display on Friday. For all the focus on their ongoing defensive crisis, the Blues didn’t even have any attacking thrust. “It’s not only defensively,” Alonso lamented, “with the ball there are parts where we need to do better.”

Chelsea’s buildup was painfully labored. The back three jabbed at the ball as though it caused actual physical pain to touch it while the central pairing of Barco and Henderson seemed only capable of rolling it between one another. The two midfielders completed 116 passes between them on Friday, yet not one went inside Brentford’s box—barely any went in the same ZIP Code as the opposition penalty area.

This sterile lack of penetration became a caricature once Chelsea fell behind in the 61st minute. The Blues had 80% possession across that final half-hour without forcing Caoimhin Kelleher into a single save.

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Control

Cole Palmer didn’t take a shot on target. | Rob Newell/CameraSport/Getty Images

This was the first time that Chelsea had not taken an early lead in the Premier League under Alonso and they suffered desperately from not being able to sit back and strike on the counter. With the contest in the balance, the Blues had to play a different, more measured approach which they did not take to.

“The other part is when you need to hold, when you need to be tight, [the opponent] is trying to attack you and you need to know how to defend and stick together,” Alonso quietly fumed.

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Transitions

Igor Thiago up and running 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/4qPdtgzEnA

— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) September 18, 2026

One of the consequences of having no control is a stark vulnerability to transitions. Pep Guardiola, one of Alonso’s most influential former managers, used to get his team to string together 15 passes, which he believed to be enough time for the players to organize themselves into a shape, while still having possession, that would allow them to defend any transition should they then lose the ball.

This concept is known as “rest defense”—the art of preparing to defend while winding up for an attack—and is one which Alonso is yet to get across to his current roster. The most glaring example of Chelsea’s complete incompetence in this regard came during Brentford’s second goal.

There was seven minutes left but the visitors were only trailing 1–0 when Henderson dropped into the backline to try and force a breakthrough. However, the midfielder’s straight ball toward Morgan Rogers is cut out by Kristoffer Ajer, whose teammate Mamadou Sangaré is on hand to mop up his heavy touch.

Chelsea were so exposed against Brentford. | YouTube/Sky Sports

At the point of this turnover, six of Chelsea’s 10 outfielders are caught in front of the ball. The midfield is entirely barren, with Henderson bumbling alongside the center backs and Barco even closer to goal than Cole Palmer. In the space of three passes in 10 seconds, Brentford speared through Chelsea’s soft center to double their lead and kill the contest.

Most damningly, this was something that Alonso claimed to have worked on with his team in preparation for the visit to Hounslow.

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Understanding the Game

Cole Palmer was contained on Friday night. | Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

This was the crux of Alonso’s argument: Chelsea are simply lacking the match intelligence to face a challenge as stern as this royally in-former Brentford side on their own patch.

“To understand the game,” was what Alonso pleaded for, “to know what it takes to be competing until the end.” As the former Real Madrid manager stressed, it will take time to achieve that and every other issue outlined. Whether he will be given that time is a question only Chelsea’s ownership can answer.

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