Chelsea’s first pre-season session under Xabi Alonso was more about squad status than tactics. Chelsea had 18 players at Cobham on day one, with the new head coach taking training at the Surrey base in a brutal heatwave. Three players who finished last season in the treatment room were back on the pitch, while a few familiar names were missing for very different reasons.
The players back on the grass
Estêvão, Jamie Gittens and Roméo Lavia all returned after injury. That is the encouraging part of the morning for Chelsea, because it gives Alonso at least one early sign that some of last season’s fitness problems are easing rather than rolling straight into the new campaign.
There was also a first session for Emmanuel Emegha and Geovany Quenda, who both featured after joining in the summer. Chelsea’s final league run of LWDLL, along with a 10th-place finish, 52 points, 58 goals scored and 52 conceded, is exactly the sort of backdrop that makes a cleaner pre-season reset useful.
The absences that shaped the day
Andrey Santos did not feature, with Standard Sport understanding he will soon complete a transfer to Manchester United. That move is not officially done, but it is clearly moving. Mykhailo Mudryk?
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →