Chelsea are not the team we thought they were. That is the highest praise you could offer Xabi Alonso two games into the job.
The symbolic offer to be ‘manager’ and not ‘head coach’ was backed up this summer by several key signings of over-30s players along with a slightly quieter window that has allowed Alonso to finesse a squad more stacked with talent than many realise.
But that isn’t what really stands out about Alonso’s era-shifting job so far.
A more pertinent symbol of the new direction was Chelsea’s pundit-melting 26% possession in the 4-3 victory over Brighton, a statistic that had many people question whether Chelsea really deserved the win, reflecting a cultural obsession with possession that Alonso is challenging.
What critics failed to see was the intentionality of Alonso’s approach; a rare act of tactical humility enacted after studying Brighton’s strengths and weaknesses.
Fabian Hurzeler’s team are superb at breaking, not so good at breaking teams down. Last season Brighton won eight of 28 matches in which they held 50% or more possession, winning 1.2 points per game, and six out of ten matches when holding less than 50% possession, winning 2.0 points per game.
Brighton love open and direct contests, so Alonso instructed his players to sit back, gift Brighton the ball, and hit on the counter, notably dropping off rather than pressing whenever the visitors had control.
The last Chelsea manager to renounce possession, to adapt his team to the opposition rather than rely on classic big-dog principles, also happens to be the last guy who won them the title – and he did it in his debut season, playing a 3-4-3, and benefiting from a lack of midweek European football.
The similarities between Alonso’s 2026/27 and Antonio Conte’s 2016/17 are well documented, but it wasn’t until the Brighton match that we saw the tactical side of their relationship.
Chelsea were happy to defend deep (backing off significantly in order to prevent Brighton from being able to spin around markers and pass vertically up the pitch) before jumping together on the counter-attack led by Morgan Rogers and Pedro Neto.
"Pedro Neto Pounces!"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 30, 2026
Morgan Rogers goes past his defender before sliding the ball across to Neto! 💥 pic.twitter.com/WHZCIGsOLl
Here, again, we see the Conte influence.
Winger Victor Moses was the secret weapon at wing-back a decade ago and it looks as though Alonso has already found his equivalent in Neto, a smart and hard-working player who will benefit from sprinting into the final third from deep.
It will take pundits a while to catch up to Alonso’s not-Guardiola ideas about football, but the fans will get there straight away.
Jose Mourinho built the modern Chelsea in his image, making Stamford Bridge more pliable to individualism, collective defending, and counter-attacking than any other super-club ground in England.
They are, like no other, a results-first club.
And results are already coming in. Rogers and Cole Palmer have a telepathic connection as dual tens, forged in childhood together. Jorrel Hato looks like an elite left wing-back already. Romeo Lavia finally has a chance to prove his talent, completing an excellent central midfield with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, and those two versatile full-backs Reece James and Malo Gusto.
Joao Pedro was always an elite coach away from being among world-leading, as we are already seeing. Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana are finally injury free, giving Chelsea two of the best centre-backs in the division.
Emiliano Martinez is that final piece of the jigsaw; a goalkeeper with experience and charisma on the field and off it.
Conte only really needed 13 or 14 players to sweep to the title in what was a fallow year for English football, and although Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal make things a little harder in 2026, everything is falling into place for arguably the one truly world-class manager (Arteta aside) now working in the Premier League.
There is plenty of work still to be done, of course.
Conceding five goals in the first two matches shows how difficult it can be to absorb a brand new formation in a single summer. But lest we forget Conte’s Chelsea got off to a thorny start, winning three of their first six, before he switched to his usual 3-4-3 and things clicked.
In other words, it took Conte six Premier League matches to show the confidence to go against the grain, and the singularity of thought, that Alonso has already displayed in his second match in charge.
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