We’re now 12 games into the Xabi Alonso era at Chelsea. His record so far as Chelsea manager in 90 mins, is 7 wins, 3 defeats and 2 draws (or 4 defeats and 1 draw if you count the penalty shootout as a defeat). In the Premier League he has managed 9 games, won 5, lost 3 and drawn 1. Either way, he currently has a win percentage of 58% in all competitions and 55% in the Premier League. We’re 4th in the Premier League after 9 games.
Its important to remember where Xabi started from too. In the last 11 Premier League games of last season Chelsea picked up just 7 points. 2 wins, a draw, and 8 defeats. 19th in the form table over those games, from March to end of the season. We were literally in relegation form over a sustained period. When Xabi took over, the club was really in a place Man Utd are now, where the whole project needed to be scrapped and started over. To the owners and directors credit, that’s largely what they’ve done.
The mental, psychological, and even physical toll that run, and the lack of a proper break for squad in the last two years until this summer, had done was severe. Things were toxic behind the scenes, players were divided, players undermining the ownership (even if they were right, doing it in public probably did no good), and others checking out before the season was over and demanding to leave. It really was an absolute mess Xabi walked into, and that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Work was needed not just in terms of recruitment, but in a lot of other areas. Xabi needed to change the culture of the club, improve team spirit, get players out, improve players fitness and energy levels, change the mentality of the squad, build character into his players, fix the defence, get rid of some bad habits and implement a new tactical system, much of it almost from scratch.
This is a LOT of work and it was simply impossible to do it in one pre-season and one summer window, or indeed, in 3 months. It will take more time to achieve it fully too.
Xabi, in all his interviews, has given the impression he has a long term approach to this job. He’s clearly been given a strong commitment by the club to let him build this team and the club as a whole, and implement his vision for the long haul.
In my view, he’s started this process well. Recruitment last summer was probably our best overall summer window for many years, heavily influenced by Xabi himself. All the signings we’ve made have, in my view, had some kind of impact. He added PL proven players, more physicality and height, and most importantly some experienced players, with leadership qualities, who are proven winners and culture setters.
He allowed Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella to go - two players probably causing more problems than they were solving - and got rid of a lot of the dross we’ve signed in recent years. There’s still work to do on incomings and outgoings, but a lot of good work was done in the summer.
The way I’m seeing it, he had a plan for the season in terms of the team’s development. Up to the first international break, he really wanted to see what he have and give the team a basic tactical set up, with a change in motivation, and improvement in confidence and team spirit. He tried some tactical things to see what worked and what didn’t. He’s been willing to make some mistakes to find out more about his team and his squad, and what works best for us and in the Premier League.
As I said unlike previous managers here, he’s taken a long term approach and the club have backed him to do it. Rather than rushing to get instant, consistent results, he’s taking his time to really build a team, a tactical structure as well as winning mentality and character. Success is more likely to be sustainable on strong foundations, and this is what I believe Alonso is putting in place.
In this little part of the season since the international break, he’s begun building a more solid defensive structure. There’s clear evidence of improvement in this area too. Our goals against XG in the 5 PL games up to the Brentford game was 2.25. Since the international break that’s gone down to 1.1. Its more than halved.
Before the international break we conceded 12 goals in 5 PL games. Since then, we’ve conceded only 3 goals in our last 4 PL games, and only 1 from open play. One was a player mistake, one from a corner, and another at the end of a game when we were chasing a deficit with 10 men. If you only count goals conceded with 11 men on the field, it’s down to 2 goals conceded in 4 games. In one of those games, we didn’t even have our main CB signing on the pitch either.
We’ve also kept 2 clean sheets in our last 3 PL games, having not kept one since January 2026 previously. Even the chances we conceded against Manchester United were mainly due to individual errors, not tactical or structural issues.
So the evidence is very clear, Xabi is clearly working on, and improving, different aspects of our game. As most people know, a strong defence is the most important thing to winning league titles, and we all knew it needed work (and still does). The recent improvement in that area hasn’t impacted our attack either. In the 5 PL games up to Brentford we scored 10 goals, in the 4 PL games since we’ve scored 9 goals, despite missing Joao Pedro with injury. The goals continue to come regardless.
People have complained about patterns of play or controlling games, but I think those things will come in time. We saw this in periods in the matches against Liverpool and Manchester United. Xabi has said more than once in recent weeks that Chelsea will be a different team in the last 3 months of the season than we are now.
That, to me, says, he has a development plan for this season, to help us get to the level where we’re more consistent and competitive at a high level. He has a clear vision and strategy to build this team and this squad and he’s constantly working on executing it.
In terms of individual players, Josh Acheampong, Romeo Lavia (who has been fit all season and now completed two 90 min matches in one week), Joao Pedro (when fit), Mike Penders, and others, have all improved and stepped up their level. The new signings - Morgan Rogers, Maxcene Lacroix, Pep Chavarria, Marco Palestra, Emi Martinez, Danny Welbeck, Jordan Henderson and Valentin Barco - have all contributed in some way, either in the league or cups. None look like bad signings or poor players.
I for one have also seen an improvement in our ability to compete with teams physically, win duels and not be intimidated. I think we’ve also seen the influence of the experienced players, both in that area and others. One other clear example of experience helping us is how the team discipline has improved - only 1 red card this season, as opposed to 6 this time last season.
We’re not title contenders yet and won’t be this season. But we are currently 4th in the PL, and our current points per game would take us to 67 points after 38 games. That would have taken us to 4th last season (7 points clear of 5th, who got 60 last year). We’re showing some improvement in key areas, we potentially have Alex Scott arriving in January. So I back us to keep improving over the season.
There will be more bad results, bad performances, and difficult days to come. That’s part of the process of building the club and a winning team from where we were. We need to not panic when that happens and jump to the doomsday scenarios, or suddenly say Xabi is a poor coach (I’ve literally seen people say Liam Rosenior is a better coach than Xabi, which is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard).
I do think we’re making progress, slowly but surely. I’ve seen enough in the last 3 months to be confident that if we allow Xabi Alonso time and the right investment to build this squad, he’ll take us back to success.
It won’t be instant, and it won’t be easy, but in time, I think he’ll get us to where we all want to be, and we’ve seen the evidence of this already. So we need to back Xabi Alonso and give him time, progress is being made already and there’s more to come.
The Score
Great write-up and I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments
So Rational !! Thanks !