Chelsea’s early-season thrill ride has hit a wall. The goals have dried up, the defending remains chaotic, and at Brentford on Friday night, Xabi Alonso watched his side unravel in a 3-0 defeat that felt alarmingly familiar.
From free-flowing to flat
The absence of Joao Pedro, ruled out with a knee injury, stripped Chelsea of their sharpest weapon. The Brazilian had been the hinge of Alonso’s free-scoring attack, dovetailing with Cole Palmer and £117m signing Morgan Rogers to outgun opponents while the defence creaked behind them.
Without him, the whole structure looked fragile.
Danny Welbeck, signed from Brighton in the summer to offer experience and a different focal point, stepped in. He was neat enough in possession, but with service limited and Brentford’s defence largely untroubled, he managed just 17 touches before making way in the 71st minute. Unlike Joao Pedro, who can conjure chances on his own, Welbeck never looked like bending the game to his will.
Joao Pedro came into the weekend with more goal involvements than anyone else in the Premier League – three goals and three assists in four games. His influence stretches beyond the numbers, stitching moves together with Palmer and Rogers, dragging defenders around, creating chaos. Remove that, and Chelsea suddenly looked ordinary.
Rogers, so often the live wire since his move from Aston Villa, produced his quietest display in blue. Later pushed up front with Emmanuel Emegha still sidelined and waiting for his debut, he never found the spaces he usually exploits. Chelsea’s attack, once electric, flickered.
A tight game, then a collapse
For an hour, this was a contest on a knife-edge. Both sides traded half-chances, the match seemingly waiting for one decisive moment.
It came on 61 minutes. Jaidon Anthony rose to meet a corner and guided a simple header past Emiliano Martinez. One set piece, one lapse, and Brentford led.
The reaction from Chelsea was alarming. Instead of rallying, they disintegrated.
Alonso’s side have now conceded 12 goals in the league, more than any other team, albeit having played a game more than the rest. He becomes only the sixth manager to see his side let in two or more goals in each of his first five Premier League matches. That is not teething trouble. That is a crisis of structure.
Some of the issues are inherited, but the new manager has yet to impose anything resembling tactical coherence. Systems change, personnel rotate, but the same problems keep surfacing. When Brentford “got their noses in front”, as managers like to say, Chelsea simply fell apart, allowing two late goals to turn a tight match into a rout.
Old problem, new faces
Set-pieces remain a glaring wound. Since the start of last season, Chelsea have conceded 23 goals from dead-ball situations – more than any other Premier League side. Anthony’s header from a corner took this season’s tally to five already.
This is an area the club have tried to fix. Bernardo Cueva arrived from Brentford two years ago to overhaul their set-piece work; this summer, he was replaced by Austin MacPhee, another specialist with a strong reputation. The numbers, though, refuse to shift.
“Not good enough. At times we have been bullied in the box and we definitely need to improve,” stand-in captain Levi Colwill told Sky Sports. “We have full trust in our set-piece coach and are still adjusting to new ideas, but we need to improve as a team.”
The word “bullied” will sting. It is exactly the sort of accusation Alonso has been trying to erase, pushing for a harder edge and stronger mentality in a squad often criticised for its youth and softness.
Yet at Brentford, Chelsea fielded their oldest starting XI since May 2023. Jordan Henderson, making his debut at 36 against his former club, joined Welbeck and Martinez in an experienced core. Age, though, did not bring authority.
Alonso searching for a shape
Alonso’s honesty after the game cut through the noise.
“I would say that we have dropped our consistency and our competitive mentality in the second half. We know that small details can be decisive,” he said after watching Brentford add their late goals.
He is still experimenting. Eleven debuts already under his watch, including two more on Friday. One of them, Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, made history as the first 16-year-old to play for Chelsea in the Premier League. It was a bold call, a nod to the future on a night when the present looked so muddled.
The Spaniard has yet to settle on a style that gives his team control over 90 minutes. Shapes shift, partnerships change, but the spine of a consistent game plan is missing.
“It’s not about looking for excuses,” Alonso told Sky Sports. “We need to look at each other and know that we have to work and improve because there is still a long way to go.”
The numbers back him into a corner. Free-scoring chaos has given way to bluntness up front and fragility at the back. The early excitement around his attacking football has been replaced by a cold, practical question.
With an extended international break now looming and three weeks to stew on this defeat, can Alonso find a way to stop Chelsea conceding before the season’s narrative hardens into something far more damaging?
