Tottenham left Stamford Bridge on Saturday with a win they had not landed with a clean sheet at the ground for nearly 40 years, and the opener had come off their own goalkeeper’s gloves.
Mike Penders punched a Mateus Fernandes corner into his own net on 77 minutes. Mathys Tel added a second late on with a run through the middle. Between the two goals, Cole Palmer picked up a second yellow card and left Chelsea with ten men.
The question was already in the air by then. Xabi Alonso had chosen Morgan Rogers as a false nine, with Danny Welbeck held back until deep into the second half. Joao Pedro had been ruled out with a training-ground injury and did not make the squad.
On BBC’s Match of the Day, Martin Keown struggled to follow the logic, in comments reported by Goal.
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“That seemed strange, it seemed strange,” Keown said on the programme. “I don’t remember Morgan Rogers ever playing up front for Aston Villa and I didn’t think he was at his best at all today.”
His second complaint was about the striker Alonso did not use.
“We all know what Danny Welbeck can offer and what he can bring. They used him late on in the match but I can’t really understand why he didn’t start.”
Alonso defends Penders and his false-nine plan
Xabi Alonso refused to put the own goal at Mike Penders’ door and set out why he had reshaped the front line without a specialist striker.
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“We wanted to have this fluidity in the middle. We wanted the pockets filled with Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers,” Alonso said after the match.
His verdict on the display itself was blunter.
“We are all disappointed with the result, the performance,” he told reporters.
Joao Pedro had pulled up in training during the week, and the club has yet to publish a timeline on his return.
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Chelsea slip eight points off the top
Chelsea had been sold the Alonso project in May as the end of a managerial drift, the Spaniard’s Bayer Leverkusen title and a reputation for structured, press-breaking football the main selling points. Saturday was the first time at Stamford Bridge this season that his side had failed to score.
The 2-0 defeat was Chelsea’s third of the Premier League season and leaves them eight points behind joint-leaders Manchester City and Arsenal in the table.
The next assessment of Joao Pedro is due in the coming days.
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