Chelsea's Thrilling Attack Lacks Defensive Stability

At Stamford Bridge, everyone keeps talking about what Xabi Alonso is building with the ball. The patterns, the rotations, the waves of blue shirts. And, of course, JP Morgan – the forward you simply can’t keep off the scoresheet.

Nobody has managed it yet. Chelsea have scored in every league game this season, a relentless one-goal safety net at minimum. But you can’t rely on your attack to drag you out of trouble if your back line keeps dragging you into it.

That’s the real story here. Not just this week. Not just under Alonso.

Chelsea have now gone 20 Premier League games without a clean sheet. Twenty. For a club that once prided itself on being horrible to play against, that number screams vulnerability.

Emi Martinez was supposed to be part of the fix. A World Cup winner, multiple Yashin Trophy winner, a goalkeeper with the aura of someone who relishes pressure. Yet if the defenders in front of him switch off, he might as well be Robert Sanchez for all the difference it makes.

Hull didn’t slice Chelsea apart with intricate football. They didn’t need to. Their 1.32 xG told the story: a visiting side that looked dangerous in moments, largely because Chelsea kept inviting them in. Too many chances arrived gift-wrapped, the product of poor positioning, slow reactions, or a basic failure to clear their lines.

The attacking upside is obvious. It’s fun. It’s why there’s a buzz around Alonso and this project. But if he wants this Chelsea side to do more than entertain, he has to lean on the lessons he absorbed under Jose Mourinho. Mourinho’s Chelsea sides were ruthless with the ball and ruthless without it. They killed games, strangled hope, suffocated opponents.

Right now, Alonso’s team only does half of that job.

He has the keeper. He has the flair. Until he builds the defensive edge to match, Chelsea will remain what they were against Hull: watchable, dangerous, and permanently one mistake away from throwing points away.

The next step in this project isn’t another attacking pattern. It’s a clean sheet.

Iraola’s Liverpool stumble when the schedule bites

Anfield bounced on Wednesday night. Andoni Iraola finally had his first Champions League win as a head coach, and it came against Atletico Madrid. That felt inevitable at some point this season.

The real question was never whether Liverpool could raise themselves for a big European night. It was whether Iraola could drag that same intensity out of them three days later, in the grind of the Premier League, with tired legs and heavy minds.

This was the first serious test of that. Liverpool 0-0 Fulham told its own story.

The tempo wasn’t there. The trademark Iraola press, the chaos, the relentless running – it all felt dulled. Liverpool started slowly and never really found a higher gear. Fulham grew into the game, held their ground, and by the end looked just as likely to snatch all three points as the hosts.

Iraola’s personal unbeaten run rolls on, stretching back to early January with Bournemouth and now into his Liverpool tenure. On paper, that sounds impressive. In reality, home draws with Nottingham Forest and Fulham, two points from six, are not the numbers a title challenger posts.

Fatigue was the obvious talking point, and Iraola didn’t dodge it.

“In the end, this is the easier one, for me, for you, for everyone – our players were tired,” he said. “I think there is a lack of freshness, definitely. We cannot hide it.

“I think it's the worst turnaround in terms of 60-something hours between the games, after a very big game the other day. But this is going to happen more times, maybe with one more day, maybe.”

He knows what’s coming. This schedule isn’t a one-off; it’s the new normal. Liverpool wanted Champions League nights back. This is the price.

The system that dazzled at Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth now has to survive the weight of expectation, the volume of games, and the demand for results every three days. Liverpool fans will tolerate the odd flat performance in September. They won’t accept it in March.

The unbeaten record is nice. The table will care only about how quickly Iraola finds solutions.

Spurs spend big, but the goals have vanished

You don’t need advanced analytics to diagnose Tottenham’s main issue. They can’t score.

Four hundred minutes without a league goal. No wins this season. For a club that has poured money into creative talent, that’s a brutal, simple truth.

Against Everton, the pitch was packed with players who can unlock a defence. Spurs had technicians, dribblers, passers. What they didn’t have was a reliable finisher making all that craft count.

The man supposed to be that player barely left a footprint on the game.

Dominic Solanke is not just another option for Roberto De Zerbi. He is the only orthodox number nine in the squad. When he’s fit, he has to play. Not because he’s untouchable on form, but because there is no one else like him.

That makes his performance against Everton even more alarming.

Whether it was rust from recent setbacks or a lack of service, Solanke never imposed himself. He finished with just 19 touches. Fewer than Kinsky in goal. For a centre-forward in a home game his team needed to win, that statistic is damning.

Spurs moved the ball, probed, and circled the box. The patterns were there. The end product wasn’t. Without a focal point who occupies defenders, makes aggressive runs, and turns half-chances into goals, all that possession feels hollow.

Money has been spent. The squad has been reshaped. Yet here they are, stuck in a run where every game looks the same: neat build-up, half-chances, frustration, and no breakthrough.

Until Solanke finds rhythm or De Zerbi discovers a different way to manufacture goals, Tottenham’s season will remain trapped in this loop. Creativity isn’t the problem.

Finishing is.