By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-08-19 08:52:45 | Updated at 2026-08-20 05:10:20
20 hours ago
The Premier League returns this weekend for the start of the 2026-27 campaign. Before it begins, we look at some of the key issues facing Chelsea and their new manager Xabi Alonso.
Can Xabi Alonso Tame Chelsea’s Wild Side?
Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior all failed to correct Chelsea’s disciplinary issues, so what hope is there for Xabi Alonso?
Since Pochettino’s arrival in July 2023, Chelsea have been given the most yellow cards (294) and red cards (14) in the Premier League across three seasons. In fact, Chelsea hold three of the top eight tallies for most cards received in any Premier League season, all of them coming since 2023-24, with that campaign under Pochettino (105 yellows, 4 reds) the highest of all.
Can Alonso tame Chelsea’s wild side and prevent their recklessness from damaging their hopes? His time at Real Madrid last season doesn’t provide much hope: across 28 competitive games last season, his side were given six red cards – only Real Oviedo (8) were given more between August and his sacking in mid-January.
Much of Alonso’s failure at Madrid stemmed from his inability to control the egos of multiple players. There are some strong characters and personalities at Chelsea too, with expectation levels maybe not as high as they come at Madrid but still adding pressure from the off.
It’s difficult to explicitly tie inexperience to a lack of discipline, but there are possible links between Chelsea being the youngest team in the Premier League over the last three seasons, but they’ve made steps to change that this summer…
Will Adding More Experience Help Chelsea?
Chelsea had the youngest average starting XI age in the Premier League last season, at just 24 years and 194 days old. That was also the case in 2024-25 (24 years, 36 days) and 2023-24 (24 years, 232 days).
There was a serious lack of experience on their bench too, with the average age of Chelsea’s named substitutes last season being just 22 years, 83 days old – over a year and a half younger than any other team.
Since the Clearlake investment group bought a majority stake in the club at the end of 2021-22, their policy has been to recruit young players on long-term contracts, but back in April owner Behdad Eghbali hinted at potentially tweaking their model and adding some more experience to their core of young players.
The recruitment of 35-year-old Danny Welbeck and 36-year-old Jordan Henderson this summer has done just that.
Thirty different players made an appearance in the league for Chelsea last season, with none of those playing a game while over the age of 28. Those 30 players have currently played 2,184 Premier League matches combined, with none of them topping 180 (Pedro Neto). Henderson and Welbeck are two of just 46 players to play 400+ times in the competition, with 863 Premier League appearances between them.
Some experienced heads could help manage games better after failing to do so last season. The Blues dropped more points from winning positions (19) than they won from losing positions (14). A league-high 17 of those came in home matches, which was three more than any other club in the Premier League.
Will World Cup Rejection Push Cole Palmer?
Following last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup success, where Cole Palmer pulled the strings in a brilliant 3-0 win over PSG in the final, everyone was excited about the potential heights the Englishman could reach in 2025-26.
He scored three times and assisted twice more in six games in the CWC, but struggled to replicate his best form over the following campaign.
Palmer has been involved in just 14 goals in 34 competitive appearances for Chelsea in the last 12 months. Take penalties away, and he’s not even reached double figures (9). Before his goal on the final day of the Premier League season versus Sunderland, Palmer had gone 12 successive appearances without scoring or assisting in all competitions for Chelsea – his worst run at the club.
Those stats were one of the main reasons behind his exclusion from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup, which was an unthinkable situation a year earlier following Palmer’s 18 goals and 13 assists for Chelsea in 2024-25, including the Club World Cup.
Palmer will hope that Alonso can spark his career back into life. The Spaniard worked wonders for another number 10 during his two and a half years at Bayer Leverkusen, elevating Florian Wirtz to another level. In that time, only Harry Kane (84) was involved in more non-penalty goals for a Bundesliga club than Wirtz (74), with the German assisting more goals (41) and creating more chances from open play (249) than any other Bundesliga player across all competitions.
Can João Pedro Reach New Heights?
Despite Chelsea’s poor season last time out, João Pedro’s first campaign at the club should arguably be considered a pretty big success.
After making his debut at the Club World Cup in July 2025 against former club Palmeiras, the Brazilian forward scored 23 goals in 53 appearances for Chelsea – eight more than any other player – and assisted six more goals for his teammates. The only players to score more often for Premier League clubs in that time were Erling Haaland (38) and Igor Thiago (25).
It was therefore a big shock to see him left out of Carlo Ancelotti’s World Cup squad in favour of an ageing Neymar, who’d struggled for fitness across the previous season at Santos in Brazil. But with a summer of rest, it should be a big bonus for Chelsea to have their star forward fresh for 2026-27.
Pedro’s form did dip towards the end of last season, scoring just twice in his final 11 competitive appearances of 2025-26 – one of those coming against League Two side Port Vale in the FA Cup – but he has looked sharp in pre-season, scoring seven goals in 348 minutes of friendly action.
Maybe the summer of rest has done him some good.
Does Having No European Football Help or Hinder Alonso?
For just the second time in 10 seasons, Chelsea will have no European football to contend with in 2026-27.
A disappointing 10th-place finish in the Premier League last season meant they finished outside the European qualification spots, so full attention will be on domestic competitions this time around.
Chelsea played 59 matches in all competitions from 1 August onwards last season, with an additional seven in the Club World Cup prior to that in June and July. Even if they reach the final of both the FA Cup and League Cup this season, they can only play a maximum of 50 matches in 2026-27.
One negative aspect will undoubtedly be fewer opportunities to give minutes to players in one of the biggest squads of any Premier League club.
But the plus side is that Alonso can put more focus on competing for domestic silverware and potentially challenge for the Premier League title without the distractions of European football.
Manchester United showed the benefit of no European football last season, with a 29-point improvement on the season before and finishing third in the Premier League after back-to-back league finishes outside the top seven. They played just 40 games in all competitions.
Newcastle are another club who have shown improved form when having no European football to contend with over recent years. The Magpies finished inside the top five of the Premier League and secured Champions League football in both 2022-23 and 2024-25 when they weren’t in Europe, not to mention two EFL Cup final appearances.
Chelsea haven’t won a domestic cup competition since lifting the FA Cup in 2017-18, despite reaching the final of the FA Cup or League Cup on seven occasions in the last eight seasons. Maybe this season will be different?
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