Following Chelsea's 6-4 dismantling of Western Sydney Wanderers, let's find out Xabi Alonso's thoughts on his first game as Chelsea boss.
ben-lewis
ByBen LewisPublished July 28, 2026 – Updated July 28, 2026, 7:26 pm BST
Xabi Alonso reflects on Chelsea's 6-4 win over Western Sydney Wanderers
Alonso in his post match press conference - Image by Darren Walsh
A ten-goal thriller saw a young Chelsea squad beat Australian side Western Sydney Wanderers 6-4 in the Blues' first test of their pre-season tour of Australia and South East Asia.
Early lead
The game began entirely in Chelsea's favour with 18-year-old new signing Dastan Satpayev slotting home a technically brilliant finish beyond Jordan Holmes in the Sydney net.
However, the game soon turned on its head as goals from Pantazopoulos and Hammond saw Sydney take a 2-1 lead. Despite this, their joy was short lived as Dario Essugo linked up nicely with Cobham graduate Reggie Walsh to slot home his first goal in Chelsea blue.
An eventful second half
As the second half got back underway, Chelsea made two changes as Omari Kellyman and Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli entered the field of play, although they seemed to have little influence as Dylan Scicluna regained Sydney's lead.
This led to a mass wave of substitutions for Xabi Alonso's side as Cole Palmer, João Pedro, Estevao, Levi Colwill, Marco Palestra, Jamie Gittens and Aaron Anselmino made their way onto the turf of the Accor Stadium.
Only two minutes after coming on, a moment of magic from Chelsea's 25/26 top scorer, João Pedro, led to a Jamie Gittens finish, a third consecutive goal from the young winger this pre-season.
Despite Sydney putting one beyond Robert Sanchez following his switch with Teddy Sharman-Lowe, this marked the beginning of an eight-minute extravaganza from João Pedro. The Brazilian slotted home three composed strikes in the space of only eight minutes as Chelsea gained a 6-4 lead.
Alonso's reflection
Let's look at some of Xabi Alonso's thoughts as the new Chelsea boss reflected on this chaotic game in Australia.
When asked to summarise the game, Xabi commented: "It has been a useful friendly, we can learn from it. There were moments we were struggling for solutions, we need to correct that. Our game-management, we can learn from today. They were pressing high and we need to find solutions. It will happen often in all the games. The more situations we have like this, the better it is for us to find the solutions. It's going to be useful for the future, minutes for everyone, no injuries."
He was then asked to comment on João Pedro's impressive hat-trick as he replied: "Very hungry. Joao is really, really determined to have a great season. After a great season, he wants to keep scoring more and more. We need to help him. The players around him also need a hunger to score - it's not just about the striker. When we win and our striker scores, we are happy."
When asked for his thoughts on Joao's strike counterpart, Liam Delap, Alonso remarked: "Liam is doing well. It was 60 minutes he had a battle against the centre backs. He is doing well. He's got a good desire."
Following Chelsea's links to Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, Alonso remained fairly relaxed about the conspiracies: "I'm sure that there will be lots of things, rumours, it's going to be a hard task but for sure we need proper balance in terms of qualities, positions, balance - we want to have a good squad and make a great team."
Injury update
Romeo Lavia
"He felt something in the hamstring. Not a big thing. We are expecting him to be fit for Saturday, hopefully."
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