Chelsea’s defensive issues have drawn a sharp rebuke from Xabi Alonso after his side dropped two points at home to Hull City in a 2-2 draw on Saturday, extending the club’s run without a clean sheet in the Premier League to 20 matches, their longest such sequence in 65 years.
The result leaves Chelsea having conceded two or more goals in each of their opening four league matches for the first time in 11 years. Only Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town have let in more than Chelsea‘s nine goals in the top flight so far this season.
Alonso criticises ‘soft’ Chelsea performance
Speaking after the match at Stamford Bridge, Alonso said his players needed to be ‘competing better’ and stop being ‘soft’ in duels. ‘We had one or two good chances to get the winner, but you’re still open. Not happy. We can do better. We got what we deserved,’ he said.
On what it will take to address Chelsea’s defensive issues, Alonso added: ‘It’s all maybe entertaining, but I hope that one day you say it was a boring game and we win and we don’t give these entertaining moments. It 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.’
The problems, Alonso acknowledged, span open play, set-pieces and long balls. ‘Overall, I think that we are attacking better than defending in every part,’ he said. ‘We know that it’s a big topic and a big theme for us. For sure it’s just four games, but the dynamic in terms of conceding, I don’t like it and we need to do much better.’
He insisted the switch to a back four on Saturday was not a tactical response to the defensive fragility, saying the decision came down to ‘the profile of the players’ and where they performed best. It was, he said, a ‘tactical’ call to withdraw Jorrel Hato at half-time after the defender misjudged a cross before Hull scored their equaliser.
Goals and errors in equal measure
Chelsea had taken the lead through Morgan Rogers and restored parity via Joao Pedro in the second half, with Cole Palmer involved in both strikes. Yet Hull’s goals exposed recurring patterns at the back: Hato’s misjudgement for the first and a failure to clear a corner for Mohamed Belloumi’s second.
Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic described Chelsea goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez as his ‘man of the match’ after Martinez denied Oli McBurnie, Mohamed-Ali Cho and Lucas Herrington. The hosts were left to reflect on a performance that, despite their attacking quality, yielded only a point.
Former defender and BBC Sport pundit Ashley Williams did not hold back. ‘Chelsea are all over the place in transitions. When they lose the ball, they are wide open. The goals they conceded are just basic errors,’ Williams said. ‘Both individually and as a defensive unit, they are so far off it and are shipping goals. They are not going to achieve what they want this season defending like that.’
Alonso has been experimenting with shape. This week alone, he changed system across three successive matches: from the defeat at Arsenal to a 6-3 Carabao Cup win over Leeds in midweek, and then again against Hull.
The defensive concerns are compounded by a thin midfield. With Moises Caicedo out injured, Chelsea have looked short in the middle of the park. Monaco pulled the plug on the club’s £47m deal to sign midfielder Lamine Camara on deadline day, and attempts to sign Roma’s Manu Kone and Fulham’s Sander Berge as alternatives also came to nothing.
Key defensive signing Maxence Lacroix was left out of Saturday’s squad, and none of the defensive options have found consistent form this season. Malo Gusto’s substitution was applauded by sections of the Stamford Bridge crowd, an uncomfortable signal for a player already under pressure from supporters.
Chelsea face Brentford on Friday in what will be the final match before a three-week international break, with Alonso having no opportunity to add to his squad until the January transfer window. He said he was confident the issues would be addressed with time: ‘In a few months I’m sure we’ll be able to control better.’
