Chelsea's Struggles Continue: Set-Piece Issues and Defensive Woes

Chelsea drifted into the international break with a familiar, bruising feeling: outplayed in both boxes and punished from set pieces, again.

Xabi Alonso did not bother dressing it up. The Chelsea manager called the performance “disappointing, especially the result,” and admitted his side simply “must do better.”

For 45 minutes, they looked alive. Competitive. Organised. Then the second half arrived, and the structure that had carried them through the opening period fell apart. Three goals conceded, the game gone, and a harsh spotlight trained on a defence that keeps leaking at key moments.

“You need to be very focused,” Alonso said, dissecting the collapse. “Once you concede from set-pieces, it gives them an advantage and control because once you concede the second goal it becomes much harder and we lost a little bit of our discipline when we were close to the box. We have to correct, it was our mistakes.”

The pattern is becoming hard to ignore. Chelsea have now conceded at least two goals in each of Alonso’s first five Premier League games in charge. Only five managers before him – Mick McCarthy, Sammy Lee, Terry Connor, Slavisa Jokanovic and Scott Parker – have started their English top-flight careers in such porous fashion.

Set-piece scars and brittle discipline

The damage again started from a dead ball. Chelsea switched off, paid for it, and then chased the game in a way that left them wide open.

Defender Levi Colwill did not sugarcoat it. “It was tough,” he told Sky Sports. “Firstly conceding a set piece was not the best, we tried to push and maybe overexposed ourselves, played some passes we shouldn't and they hit us on the counter, and got the second goal and the third goal hit home and hurt. Second half we weren't good enough and we have a lot to work on in the international break.”

Five goals conceded from set pieces already this season underline the problem. Colwill called it what it is.

“Not been good enough. At times we have been bullied in the box, we need to definitely improve with that. We have got all trust in our set piece coach and still adjusting to new things. We do need to improve as a team.”

This is not just about one unit or one phase. Alonso pushed the responsibility across the pitch. Yes, the defending has to sharpen, but the manager pointed to issues with the ball as well – the missed passes, the lack of incision, the inability to relieve pressure when opponents ramp up their press.

Blunt edge up front, cracks at the back

Chelsea’s attacking numbers told their own story. They hovered around the box in the first half without truly cutting through.

“First half we were around but not creating big chances,” Alonso said. “We missed the last pass, the last dribble to get shots in clear positions, but that's one part. The other part is when you need to hold, when you need to be tight, [the opponent] is trying to attack you and you need to know how to defend and stick together. Win duels and be consistent in that part.”

Colwill echoed that sense of imbalance. The front line cannot keep being asked to rescue games that are slipping away at the other end.

“We still need to improve a lot,” he said. “We can't rely on our front three to pull us out of danger. The rest of us have to help as much as possible. We definitely have a lot of room to improve.”

He was adamant, though, that the team did not fold mentally. “I don't think spirit went down. It hurt and we tried to push for equaliser and we got hit on the counter attack. I don't think our spirit dropped.”

Effort is not the problem. Control is. Chelsea chase, stretch, and then get picked off.

Alonso’s reset window – and a glimpse of the future

Now comes the international break, a pause Alonso cannot influence but must use.

“It is what it is,” he said. “Now we will have time with some players, but we can't change that.” The message is clear: individual and collective details have to improve, and not just in the back line. “It's everything but for sure individual and collective details will have to be better, but it's not only defensively, with the ball there are parts where we need to do better.”

Amid the gloom, there was at least one moment that pointed beyond the current turbulence. Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli stepped onto the pitch and into the record books, becoming the first player born in 2010 to play in the Premier League and the first 16-year-old to represent Chelsea in the competition.

His debut was a reminder of what this club still offers: opportunity, a pathway, a future.

The question now is whether Alonso can tighten a leaky, anxious side quickly enough for that future to arrive on schedule, rather than drift further away with every set piece they fail to defend.