By Kehinde-Hassan Afolabi
Chelsea’s attack looks title-winning, but their defensive frailties under Xabi Alonso are making a serious Premier League title challenge increasingly difficult to justify.
There is no denying that Chelsea can be frightening going forward. They have pace, movement, individual quality, and enough attacking talent to make almost any Premier League defence uncomfortable.
The trident of Morgan Rogers, Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer are turning the fan-given JP Morgan nickname iconic, having combined for 14 Premier League goal contributions among them after just four games into the season.
They turned defence into attack in quick succession. Many of their goals so far this season have come from transitions, and thanks to their philosophy of sacrificing control, they have been able to get the best out of the attacking trio.
But if this is supposed to be a team capable of mounting a serious Premier League title challenge, there is another side of Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea that can no longer be brushed aside, and it is that they cannot defend well enough.
The discouraging numbers
Four league games into the 2026/27 season, the West Londoners have scored a league-high 10 goals but have also conceded nine, an extraordinary number for a side being discussed as a potential title contender.
Defending champions, Arsenal, by comparison, have taken maximum points from their opening four matches, scored two fewer goals, but have kept three clean sheets, conceding only one goal.
In Premier League history, Manchester United, 44, in 1996-97 conceded the most goals for a title-winning team, while Chelsea, at the current rate, are projected to have their net breached over 85 times across the 38 games.
In addition, the Blues have already dropped points at home to Hull City and suffered defeat at Arsenal, while their victories over Fulham and Brighton required them to score three and four goals respectively just to get over the line.
And the problem becomes even more striking when the wider picture is considered. Chelsea have conceded at least two goals in each of their five matches against topflight opposition under Alonso so far, with Leeds also joining the party in a 6-3 EFL Cup loss.
Across those five matches, they have conceded 12 goals. They have also scored 18, which tells you everything about the character of this team set up by Xabi Alonso: one of spectacular going forward, but dangerously vulnerable when defending.
The attack is doing too much of the heavy lifting
Chelsea’s attacking output is not the problem. In fact, it is probably the reason the defensive shortcomings have been tolerated for as long as they have, because the signs have been there since pre-season.
The Blues’ only clean sheet during the summer came against an AC Milan team without a win up to that point. Chelsea conceded four goals against Western Sydney, three against Johor Darul Ta’zim, two against Spurs, who haven’t scored after four league games, and then one in the other games.
However, in many of those games, they have also displayed deadly attacking numbers, which have kept the fans going and behind the team. Even after the loss at Arsenal, the belief was not lost.
Morgan Rogers has made an exceptional start, scoring in three of Chelsea’s first four league games, while João Pedro, Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer and others have given Alonso plenty of weapons in the final third, but on days when the three points don’t come, a reality check takes a visit.
The problem is that Chelsea increasingly appear to be asking their attackers to rescue defensive shortcomings by scoring more goals, but maybe the team will fare even better if the attackers are tasked with more defensive responsibilities.
Against Brighton, they raced into a 3-0 lead but then allowed the visitors back into the game before eventually winning 4-3. Fulham pushed them all the way in a 3-2 defeat of Marco Silva’s side. Arsenal came from behind to beat them 2-1, while Hull recovered from conceding first to lead at Stamford Bridge before João Pedro rescued a point.
That is not simply an entertaining style of football. At some point, it becomes poor game management.
A title-winning side cannot continually rely on scoring three or four goals to compensate for conceding two or three. There will be nights when the attack misfires, when Cole Palmer is quiet, when the opponent defends brilliantly, or when the goalkeeper produces a performance like Hull’s Konstantinos Tzolakis did at Stamford Bridge.
What happens then?
Chelsea need an answer because their current approach under Xabi Alonso leaves very little margin for error, but wide ones for the chances of them happening.
Defending cannot be left to the defenders
Perhaps the most concerning aspect is that Chelsea’s defensive problems are not simply about individual mistakes from defenders. There is a broader issue with how the team defends, and that could be the tweak Xabi Alonso has to make.
Too often, the attacking players appear to have permission to concentrate on creating and scoring while the defensive players are left to deal with the consequences. That might produce spectacular football, but it is not a sustainable approach at the highest level.
Good defending begins with the entire team. The forwards have to press intelligently. Midfielders have to close passing lanes, track runners and protect the back four. The defensive line must remain connected to the midfield. Possession has to be used not only to create chances but also to control matches, because of the risks when they are turned over.
Under Alonso, Chelsea have not consistently shown that they prefer control without possession, but in a league of the Premier League quality, chances are very high that teams will punish you if concede possession for sustainable periods.
Chelsea’s failure to keep a clean sheet in the league has now stretched to 20 games since it began in January, and it now represents their worst sequence in 65 years. So this isn’t an early-season curiosity. It is a pattern. And Alonso himself is beginning to sound increasingly concerned.
After the Hull disappointment, the Spaniard criticised Chelsea’s softness and lack of control, admitting that he would prefer some boring victories. That is significant because his team is set up to be chaotic, open and spectacular, yet far too easy to play against.
The Hull draw should set off the alarm
If there was any match that should have exposed the danger of this approach, it was Hull. While the visitors’ excellent start is respected, it doesn’t change the fact that Chelsea were playing at Stamford Bridge against a newly promoted side, who have never won at Stamford Bridge.
Hull’s equaliser came after a defensive error involving Jorrel Hato, while Belloumi then completed his brace to put the visitors ahead before João Pedro rescued a point from a Cole Palmer assist. The visitors managed to restrict Chelsea to only 0.89 expected goals, despite spending large periods defending, and repeatedly threatened on the counter.
That is the sort of match a genuine title contender should control. Instead, Chelsea turned another winnable game into another seven-goal thriller? No — this time a four-goal drama. The entertainment is excellent. The defending is nothing to write home about.
And that distinction matters. Chelsea can score their way out of some problems — but not all of them. There is enough quality in Alonso’s squad to make Chelsea a dangerous team. But maybe the unavailability of Moises Caicedo is still haunting the team.
Nevertheless, their summer overhaul involved 11 signings and around £349 million of spending, so there is no shortage of talent or resources excuse is expected from a manager who also saw to the departure of Enzo Fernandez without proper replacement.
Even at that, talent does not automatically create balance.
Arsenal have already demonstrated the difference when both sides met at the Emirates. Chelsea took an early lead, but the hosts remained calm, recovered, and won 2-1. The champions did not need to turn the match into a shootout. They simply waited for Chelsea’s weaknesses to appear and punished them.
That is what the Premier League’s best sides do. Chelsea’s attack may be good enough to beat almost anybody on a given matchday, but the question remains whether their defence is reliable enough to keep them ahead in a 38-game title race.
Right now, the evidence says no after they failed in the last two games, which now sees them five points behind the genuine title contenders after just four games, and with only one top team faced.
There is still plenty of time for Alonso to fix it. The season is only four league games old, and a new manager working with a heavily rebuilt squad deserves time. But the warning signs are already flashing brightly, and Chelsea may not really be in the title challengers category.
The attacking talent looked like it could propel them to the league title due to their lack of European distractions, but the opening weeks of the season have returned the dreams sold back to earth.
Surely Chelsea cannot expect to be taken seriously as Premier League title contenders if defending remains something the back line is expected to handle almost on its own, because the teams who have succeeded at it have made it a collective responsibility.
The attack looks like a title-winning attack. The defence looks like it belongs in a completely different conversation. This is the state of Chelsea’s title challenge, and the very idea of one feels like a mockery.
