I was going wait till after the Man Utd game to write this, but decided to do it now. Because what I’m gonna say is true regardless of what happens against Manchester United, or even Sunderland after it. Even if we lose both games, what I’m saying in this article will still apply. Because I’m increasingly frustrated and bored of the absolute pathetic, entitled, reactionary nonsense I’m seeing on social media regarding our manager, Xabi Alonso. Honestly, some of the stuff I’m seeing on socials makes me ashamed and embarrassed to be a Chelsea fan.
I’ve written plenty of articles explaining why we need stability with an elite manager to get Chelsea where we belong. I’m not gonna make those arguments again, they are all still true.
Overall we’ve been inconsistent this year so far. In 90 mins, we’ve played 11, won 6, drawn 2 and lost 3. We’re 5th in the Premier League as of Wednesday 28th Oct, after 8 PL games.
But I think a reminder is needed of where Xabi Alonso came into Chelsea. Between Feb 1st 2026 and the end of the PL season, we played 14 PL games (a third of a PL season almost), and got 12 points. We were 18th in the PL form table for four months. If you take our February and go from March, it looks even worse. We played 11 PL games, lost 8 of them, and got just 7 points, which put us 19th in the form table.
If you took our Feb-May form over a full PL season we’d have got 32 points, and been relegated in 18th place. If you take our March-May form over a season, we’d have finished second bottom with 25 points.
This was over 3-4 months remember, not just a few weeks. Our form from Jan 1st to the end of the season - 19 games, half the PL season, was 15th in the PL form table with 22 points from 19 games, 44 points over a season, which would have seen us finish 16th last season.
Whatever way you look at it, we were basically in lower table / relegation form for half a season. With toxic players, low confidence, bad on pitch habits, a divided dressing room, players who wanted out, poor coaching and awful mentality. Probably our lowest point as a club for nearly 30 years.
And THIS is what Xabi Alonso came in to.
When Xabi Alonso took over at Bayer Leverkusen they were 17th in the Bundesliga after 9 games of the 22/23 season. Now coming into that was bad enough, the situation at Chelsea was arguably worse. 10th place last season flattered us in all honesty.
Xabi didn’t just have to improve the coaching and tactics, and the squad, like most new managers. His job was far more comprehensive and deep rooted.
He had to change the culture at the club, the mentality, get the players out of bad habits, build their confidence, help them deal with the physical side of the game and stop being bullied and help them overcome setbacks in games and with bad results.
He basically had to rebuild the whole men’s football side himself, almost from scratch.
Its a similar job to what Mikel Arteta had to do at Arsenal when he joined in 2019. They’d got into a mentality of underachievement, with toxic players, and a poor culture. It took Arteta literally years to rebuild that, but now Arsenal are PL champions and Champions League finalists, who challenge for the league every year. If they’d given up on him only 4 months in, that would never have happened. Jurgen Klopp had to do something similar at Liverpool, it took him 3 years. Like Alonso, both elite coaches - Jurgen had already proven to be so - and both given time.
Xabi been in the job only 4 months and 11 games. This is not, to him, a short term project, and frankly there’s no way anyone can completely transform the club that quickly given how bad things were. If people think a manager is coming in and making us a title challenging side overnight, or not going to have struggles and challenges, they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.
Xabi has got a long term vision for this Chelsea side. He’s even said in interviews, it would be foolish to expect us to be challenging for the league now, and we’ll be better as the season goes on and in future seasons. It’s also clear to me, the ownership and directors are fully backing him in this approach and for the long term. We’ve seen this in the summer market, and their work to get Alex Scott, a big Xabi Alonso target, in the door in early January.
My analysis of our two recent games is that Xabi Alonso is trying to improve our defending as a team. We’ve seen how strong our attack can be but our defending needed work. Against Spurs, outside the own goal Spurs only had 3 shots on target despite all their possession. Liverpool, outside the dumb penalty caused by Wes Fofana, only had 3 shots on target. They didn’t look too dangerous other than the odd moment. If we’d been more clinical we could have won the game. I think had Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer been on the pitch, we would have.
We didn’t look in too much danger of conceding in either game, the goals were individual errors, not tactically related. We also largely defended the chances we gave up well. If Xabi can get the balance right between our strong attack and defence, we will become a difficult side to beat and win more than we don’t win. Alex Scott is a key player to implementing this effectively, as he is a box to box player, with tons of energy and physicality, who can cover a lot of ground, can defend and also add to the attack.
Xabi seems to be prioritising building a healthy, working long term tactical structure over immediate results. Obviously he still wants to win, but he looks like a manager who knows he will be given time by the owners and directors, and isn’t under pressure to deliver instant title winning success. Our squad, especially if we add Alex Scott, is good enough to finish in the top 4 this season and to win the FA Cup. I’m very confident of finishing top 4 and I think we’ll be in a stronger position come January to go for the cup. Bottom line, Xabi Alonso is a top coach and we will improve as time goes on, and grow in consistency.
I’ll say it right, now, Xabi Alonso needs to be given at least 2-3 years to build something at Chelsea. Even if we finish 6th this season, he should still be allowed to stay and keep building. Even if we lose our next two games before the international break, he should keep his job.
Because what’s the alternative? Start again with a manager who probably isn’t as good and be held back yet another year? People say Cesc Fabregas, but what happens when he loses some games in the same way Xabi has? No. The whole thing is absurd. It’s self sabotage almost. Xabi Alonso is an elite manager, and his record has earned him time and patience.
Ironically his start at Leverkusen was similar to his one at Chelsea. In his first 12 games at Leverkusen he won 5, lost 5 and drew 2. After 11 games at Chelsea he has won 6, drew 2 and lost 3 (or drew 1 and lost 4 if you count the cup game as a defeat). He took them from 17th to 6th in his first season (when he came in 9 games in). He’s actually made a marginally better start at Chelsea than he did at Leverkusen.
Sadly I’m already seeing the first signs of people doubting Xabi Alonso and questioning his ability as a manager. I’ve actually seen people seriously say Liam Rosenior is a better manager or they preferred him to Xabi. Liam Rosenior, the guy who had us in relegation form last season, the worst Chelsea manager of most of our lifetimes. Its just laughable and embarrassing. In fact, its a disgrace.
Honestly, I can’t be bothered wasting my time with all that nonsense and the “fans” who say it. Absolute waste of space for me, I have no respect for those kind of “fans”.
Xabi’s track record speaks for itself. An unbeaten domestic season in Germany, winning the domestic double, and reaching a European final, all with a club not Bayern Munich and a limited budget. Following this up with 2nd place and a German Supercup. 61% win percentage at Leverkusen, 71% at Real Madrid. Beaten the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Inter and other big teams as a coach. Won it all as a player and won major titles as a manager.
As I said earlier, the job he has at Chelsea is huge. It’s a gargantuan task to turn this club around, rebuild it from where we were in May, and take us back to the top. It will take years, and there will be ups and downs along the way.
That’s part of what is necessary to get back to the top, and you could put Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp or anyone in charge, they would face the same challenges, they would make mistakes, and they’d lose some games along the way. If we get rid of Xabi at any point in the next 2-3 years (barring 3-4 months of literal relegation form), we’re just finished as a serious football club to me. If that happened I couldn’t take us seriously anymore.
Make no mistake, if we keep on sacking managers we will end up in the mess Manchester United are in, mid table or worse and never challenging. We’ll also have wasted an elite manager who WILL be successful at other clubs if we forced him out.
Fans need to wise up to this soon. Right now it really is beginning to look like no matter what a manager’s previous track record, no manager will ever be given proper time with fans. We turned on Frank Lampard and Chelsea fans posted “Fatpard” pictures back in 2020, so employing a club legend won’t make a difference either. This is going to fatally damage us as an elite level club if we’re not careful.
At some point, Chelsea fans have to suck it up, and go through some tough times with a manager, and let him make mistakes and build success over time. Its the only pathway back to the top. There’s no quick fix or easy or alternative path back to being a title challenging club. None.
If we can’t do that, I don’t want to hear anyone complaining about us not challenging for PL titles or CL titles. Because constantly changing managers or turning on them after 8 games only leads to mediocrity. And I don’t want to hear “we just need the right manager to give patience to”, as given Xabi is an elite coach and has earned time, the fact people are turning on him already proves that argument is complete bullshit. These people just want a manager who’ll never lose a game or go on a bad run of form, which is impossible.
The hard fact is there’ll be down days, bad results and performances, on the way back to success. That’s where we are. But Xabi Alonso is worth pushing through that with, because he’s an elite coach and a winner - and if we let him, he will take us back to the top.
If we don’t learn that and back him, or at least one elite manager, you can forget Chelsea being a serious football club for a long time. And it’ll be exactly what we deserve.
The Score