Chelsea News Xabi Alonso’s First Preseason Brings Goals and Growing Pains
A new manager, a new continent, a scoreline that told two different stories at once. Chelsea kicked off Xabi Alonso’s first preseason with a trip to Australia and Asia – the club’s first tour of the region in over a decade. The result already moved the markets: Chelsea’s odds for a top-four finish have shortened slightly since the appointment, a sign bookmakers are warming to the early signs of Alonso’s approach.
Supporters following the tour from outside broadcast windows have mostly done it through a phone, with a download bizbet apk install letting fans catch live odds and scorelines alongside line-ups from time zones several hours removed from Stamford Bridge.
Six Goals, But a Defensive Warning Sign Too
Chelsea opened with a 6-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers, Joao Pedro standing out once introduced. But defensive lapses were obvious enough that Tosin Adarabioyo faced criticism afterward, and clean sheet markets for the Newcastle opener have drifted out slightly as a result – bookmakers pricing in genuine uncertainty at the back rather than treating a 28-man rotation as a settled first-choice defense.
A Genuinely Deep Undercard Backs Up the Main Event
A 28-man squad traveled to Australia, with several first-teamers linking up in stages rather than all at once, given how many Chelsea players went deep into the World Cup this summer. Alonso himself wasn’t fully satisfied even in a comfortable win – a fairly normal reaction from a new manager assessing a squad for the first time against considerably weaker opposition than he’ll actually face once the Premier League season starts.
The Rest of a Genuinely Global Tour
From Sydney, where Chelsea also face Tottenham in a rivalry friendly, the tour moves to Hong Kong for Juventus, then Jakarta for AC Milan, before a Real Sociedad friendly closes it out at Stamford Bridge on August 15. Results across these games matter less for the final score than for how the futures markets keep reacting to them along the way.
| Opponent | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Western Sydney Wanderers | Sydney, Australia | Tue 28 July |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Sydney, Australia | Sat 1 August |
| Juventus | Hong Kong | Wed 5 August |
| AC Milan | Jakarta, Indonesia | Sat 8 August |
| Real Sociedad | Stamford Bridge, London | Sat 15 August |
One Position Still Needs Solving
Replacing Marc Cucurella at left-back sits high on the remaining priority list, and specials markets on which club completes a left-back signing first have Chelsea among the favorites. Checking live squad and market movement through a bizbet güncel page tends to surface that kind of transfer-market pricing faster than waiting on a single outlet’s report.
- Whether Alonso’s back line settles after the early defensive concerns
- How Chelsea’s top-four and title odds move after the Tottenham friendly specifically
- Any left-back addition before the tour wraps, and how it shifts defensive markets
- How close to full strength the squad looks by the Real Sociedad friendly
A Tour That Doubles as a Fitness Test
Five matches across four countries in roughly two weeks is a demanding schedule, especially with World Cup players still rejoining in stages. How well Chelsea manage that workload will say almost as much about the season – and about where the odds settle – as any single scoreline from the tour itself.
Closing the Gap Before Newcastle
One preseason match rarely tells the full story, and neither do early odds movements built on a small sample. Chelsea’s opener under Alonso was a genuine mixed bag – goals and promise going forward, a defensive question mark the betting markets have already started pricing in. Four more matches remain before the answers, and the numbers, start looking a lot more settled.