Momentum

Chelsea Football Club are back in action, and the Xabi Alonso era is officially underway with a 6-4 victory over the Western Sydney Wanderers at Accor Stadium.

Alonso elected to start a very young side, consisting mostly of academy players.

17-year-old Dastan Satpaev got Chelsea on the scoresheet in just 7 minutes, taking a through ball and drilling it into the roof of the net. There has been plenty of hype around the Kazakhstani forward already this preseason, with Chelsea bringing him in from Kairat Almaty. Now we can finally see what the hype is about.

At just 170cm, he is short, but stocky, hence the Sergio Aguero comps in the media. It will be interesting to see him at centre forward, but on the left wing tonight he looked very comfortable. He looks to be confident taking on his man and had multiple impressive runs, one that set up the second goal as well.

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Another standout for me in that first half was the other goalscorer, Essugo. The goal itself was impressive, a nice one-two with Reggie Walsh and a very composed finish.

Outside of that, he looked the most confident carrying the ball in that midfield, and used his body well to win multiple fouls. After an injury-riddled first season at Chelsea, Essugo will be looking to take his chance in that midfield this season.

I was very excited to watch academy product Landon Emenalo at left back as well. He showed very promising flashes, especially with his feet, as he looks to be great at getting forward. Defensively, he wasn’t as promising, finding himself out of position on a few occasions and losing the physicality battle.

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Speaking of defensive troubles, I thought both Tosin and Acheampong were very poor. Both looked slow and clunky and found themselves to blame for multiple goals. Acheampong less so, as he made some good challenges and is someone I definitely still have high hopes for.

Another more negative performance to touch on is Liam Delap. Sent out with the academy players, I wanted to see him really lead that forward line from the front. Unfortunately, Delap was unable to impact the game at all. His hold-up play was especially poor as he was being simply outmuscled by the Wanderers’ centre-backs.

The final academy player I will shout out specifically is Reggie Watson, the only player to play the full 90 minutes. The 16-year-old was thrown in to the deep end trying to operate in that holding midfield role, but he showed plenty of promise with some nice line-breaking passes and solid challenges.

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It took until the 64th minute for Chelsea to bring the cavalry on, trailing 3-2, and the impact was instant.

Joao Pedro was obviously the standout. He picked up an impressive assist where he beat two men, got to the byline, and put it on a platter for Gittens, only to go on and score a 9-minute hat trick. A couple of very composed finishes; he looks like a man hungry for a prolific scoring season.

Gittens also impressed in his stint, not only picking up a goal but looking incredibly silky with the ball at his feet. He looked like one of the best players out there, with some stellar touches on the run and beating his man on multiple occasions.

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Palmer was not too involved but picked up a nice assist for one of Pedro’s goals with a well-played through ball. While Palestra flashed some promising signs with his dribbling ability and physical presence in his Chelsea debut.

After being out on loan last season, Anselmino made his return to Chelsea, coming on in a left-back/left centre-back type role. He won the ball well, looked comfortable on the ball, and could be one to watch for the rest of preseason.

From a whole-team perspective, it was definitely a chaotic game. Defensively, Chelsea were nowhere near good enough, although that isn’t too worrying in preseason. In the first half, they definitley struggled to break the high press on multiple occasions, likely due to a lack of physicality and quick decision-making from the young players.

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Once the main troops came on, it was definitley a different side. Chelsea looked sharper and had a lot more polish going forward, leading to them scoring the 4 goals in just 30 minutes.

Tactically, Alonso appeared to be playing a 4-2-3-1, at least for the majority of the game. It will be interesting to see if he keeps playing this back 4 in preseason or if he tries his signature 3-4-2-1 formation from his Bayer Leverkusen days.

Xabi Alonso and Chelsea will now turn their attention to Saturday Night, where they will face London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at Accor Stadium.