5 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

There is still plenty of room for managers that had a less than sterling playing career.

Even at the elite level we’ve had Ferguson, Wenger, Klopp, Jose and even Arteta in this country none of whom had elite playing careers.

It could be argued that many elite players have more of a struggle to succeed in management because their players can’t do what is asked of them technically.

Still plenty room for a great coach to make the grade as a top manager of top players.

I think that is more yester year culture.. more and more new year players are questioning authority much more in the past ..Klopp won with a dortmund ending the barren hegemony.. arteta was a pretty accomplished player - he played for a too 4 club but also built something over 7 years.. for every fergie pep you have ex players in their era who were very successful.. but look around Hansi Flick Louis Enrique Zidane Ancelotti Pep Conte these are all Players who did it at the top..

9 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

There is still plenty of room for managers that had a less than sterling playing career.

Even at the elite level we’ve had Ferguson, Wenger, Klopp, Jose and even Arteta in this country none of whom had elite playing careers.

It could be argued that many elite players have more of a struggle to succeed in management because their players can’t do what is asked of them technically.

Still plenty room for a great coach to make the grade as a top manager of top players.

Exactly.

Credit to Xabi on picking up 2 wins for the first 2 games, especially beating Brighton, with all the Enzo stuff going on causing issues it will have been hard to keep the group fully focused.

That said he and the coaches have to get our defending, as a team, sorted. There will be games our attack does not fire. You don't win titles with a bad defence.

Attack - very good

Midfield - mishmash

Defence - horrendous

It’s been a good start. 3 wins from 3 in all competitions is very positive.

Our attacking game looks excellent, and we’re an exciting team to watch. Obviously the defensive issues are a concern and something we will need to address.

Given the lighter schedule this season without European football, hopefully Xabi has more time than usual to sort out our defensive problems.

Overall, it’s enjoyable watching us again. Looking forward to Arsenal next week.

It was enjoyable to watch.

Brighton were never that close to us - a deflected second goal hardly had me in a sweat.

Some lovely football going forward.

Better than Rosenior.

Best few games ive seen for a while.

Up the Chels.

Edited Sunday at 15:511 day by OTL
Even Todd Boehly would have enjoyed that game of soccer.

Really good start so far.

Defence isn’t great but thank goodness for Lacroix. Dread to think what our defence would be like without him.

I think the defence will find its feet eventually, with Colwill still behind after injury. Palestra still to come back to displace the useless Gusto. Martinez in goal. Our midfield isnt settled yet. Give it time we’ll get there.

Our attack… incredible.

No signs to panic yet but I thought we got away with it against Fulham and Brighton. Both had chances to equalise late on. You get away with it for so long but your luck will run out eventually.

Team seem happy and confident though so it’s something to build on. Arsenal will be a big test

I think when you look at other teams with new managers and how they have started, Alonso has done really well.

We're reminding me very much of Kevin Keegan's Newcastle at the moment and that's no bad thing.

Really enjoying the football which I haven't been able to say for quite a while.

Edited Sunday at 17:451 day by Nibs

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

No signs to panic yet but I thought we got away with it against Fulham and Brighton. Both had chances to equalise late on. You get away with it for so long but your luck will run out eventually.

Team seem happy and confident though so it’s something to build on. Arsenal will be a big test

I think the issue is mainly with our makeshift midfield, which makes it hard to have control.

Hopefully Caicedo's injury isn't too serious and we get a solid midfielder before the window shuts. This would improve us a lot imo.

Brought back the feel good factor and even though I am always excited and waiting for the next Chelsea match, this time hits differently. Been here for a whole two minutes, but managed to change the crooked culture from the past few years in such a short time. Ideally if he manages to get rid of Enzo Fernandez and Neto in the next hours and finds a top central midfielder to complement Caicedo, it would draw a line to an amazing summer.

Ideally it would be another central defender similar to Lacroix as well. Don't know if this is on his to do list, but hopefully deadline day has one big surprise left for us.

Apparently we are close to a CB and two midfielders.

My boss is close to a board member who served under Roman and still seems to have his ear to the ground. Same guy said Rogers was signing the day before the news broke.

He thinks City won’t bid for Enzo but I’m choosing to not believe that 😊

Going to reserve judgement for now. Just keep it up. Great going forward but at a flip of a switch our two wins could've been draws and the discussions about line up and system would be a whole lot different.

Looks like Plan A is let them have the ball, win it back and just bomb forward. Very exciting.

I'd like a little control after 2/3 - 0 but important to add we've not seen his first choice side yet with caicedo and palestra out and new signings due.

Hopefully we're able to switch between that attacking and control in future.

Be interesting to see what happens when we go behind, hopefully not any time soon though

Next week against Arsenal will be fun but I just don't see how we win. Our attack can cause problems but their defence will make it difficult.

They outnumber us in midfield with power and dynamism.

Our system enables us to have half a dozen defensive units but they don't feel cohesive which leads us to getting opened up. Hope Xabi has a masterplan.

10 hours ago, yaz said:

I think the issue is mainly with our makeshift midfield, which makes it hard to have control.

Hopefully Caicedo's injury isn't too serious and we get a solid midfielder before the window shuts. This would improve us a lot imo.

I assume by control you mean more possesion. It got nothing to do with midfield. Very similar to vs Fulham we played in low/medium block 343. So it is very difficult for us to get the ball back.

Edited yesterday at 05:271 day by Bob stark

4:3 points better ask Alonso. 3 wins from 3 aint a bad little start. Yeah, we are conceding, but expect things to tighten up over the next few games and if it doesn't, well, going to enjoy the counter and attacking football. Yesterday was the sort of game i expect to see henderson coming into to secure things up in the second half.

Slate has been wiped clean imo for a number of players. They look hungry under Alonso. Not sure the club knows how to handle the Enzo situation, expect him to still be here and that's not sitting well with me.

Maximum points before our visit to the Red part of North London that is a good start though of course they will be strong favourites.

Will be interesting to see if they are still using the strong-arm tactics when defending corners like last season when they take on Villa today.

We really need 2 midfield signings, CMs that can press, tackle and win 2nd balls to recycle our waves of attack.

This man should have all the Sporting Directors in a leash. Somehow managed to undone all of their four years worth of errors in a matter of just a couple of months. Only comparable to Guardiola in terms of power at a football club since Ferguson left United. Not even Klopp had that much power in his first year at Liverpool, he needed more than two seasons to change the entire culture and build his squad.

14 hours ago, strider6004 said:

Maximum points before our visit to the Red part of North London that is a good start though of course they will be strong favourites.

Will be interesting to see if they are still using the strong-arm tactics when defending corners like last season when they take on Villa today.

It's more their tactics at attacking corners that have been concerining. The league is supposedly clamping down on it. So far they have resorted to short corners as a result, it's 2019 all over again.

On 30/08/2026 at 13:07, Jangz said:

I think that is more yester year culture.. more and more new year players are questioning authority much more in the past ..Klopp won with a dortmund ending the barren hegemony.. arteta was a pretty accomplished player - he played for a too 4 club but also built something over 7 years.. for every fergie pep you have ex players in their era who were very successful.. but look around Hansi Flick Louis Enrique Zidane Ancelotti Pep Conte these are all Players who did it at the top..

There's also Maresca, Lampard, Gerrard, Gattuso, Carrick and Xavi who were obviously top players with mixed success in management, at best. Then you also have Scaloni, Iraola and Espirito Santo who have had relative success despite very middling playing careers (although all three were Football Manager legends at some point!)

Alonso earned his stripes as manager not because of his playing career, but because of what he did with Leverkusen. Same as Vincent Kompany. Their reputations as players are nice for social media clips but they are only of value because they proved themselves as managers first.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by SydneyChelsea

On 31/08/2026 at 07:26, Bob stark said:

I assume by control you mean more possesion. It got nothing to do with midfield. Very similar to vs Fulham we played in low/medium block 343. So it is very difficult for us to get the ball back.

I first started paying attention to possession numbers under Pochettino - I think something like the first 10 matches I looked at we won the game if we had less possession than our opponent, and drew/lost if we had the most.

I would love to see a complete statistic on whether or not this applicable over several seasons

12 minutes ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

I first started paying attention to possession numbers under Pochettino - I think something like the first 10 matches I looked at we won the game if we had less possession than our opponent, and drew/lost if we had the most.

I would love to see a complete statistic on whether or not this applicable over several seasons

All the data is readily available on FBREF.

Not going to be very conclusive though, as it all depends on the style of play for a particular manager. In the Maresca season and a half, we were a possession side, so all the wins (and all the defeats) are pretty much going to show us as having more possession than the opponent, unless we are playing Arsenal, Man City, PSG, Bayern etc etc.