‘Soft’-Xabi Alonso Is Already Fed Up With Chelsea’s Biggest Issue

Xabi Alonso was blatantly honest when speaking about his own team over the weekend, describing Chelsea as “soft.”

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Chelsea dropped points for the second game in a row, needing a João Pedro equalizer to draw 2–2 against newly-promoted Hull City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon. The Blues went ahead early, but two goals in a six-minute span saw the visitors mount a comeback, and Alonso’s side only managed to rescue a draw.

While Chelsea unquestionably boast one of the best attacks in the Premier League, their defensive fragilities continue to be a major problem. Chelsea pack a punch but are also easy to harm, resulting in entertaining games but also headaches for the man at the helm.

We have to settle for a point.#CFC | #CHEHULpic.twitter.com/oWFHz5fwb4

– Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 12, 2026

“It’s all maybe entertaining,” Alonso said after the game. “But I hope that one day you say it was a boring game and we win, and we don’t give these entertaining moments, but for sure, it kind of repeats some patterns that we are making.

“It will take time to, or it will take moments to, fix them when we get the lead, and you still need to be competing and not to give the chance so easily for them to come back, especially in the first goal, we can do much better.

“It was too soft to give them this hope because until then we were controlling, we were creating chances, but that momentum that we had changed the mood and the score of the game, and it’s something that we need to be talking about, we address and we will get better, but it’s having an impact on our performances at the moment.”

Xabi Alonso Slams Chelsea’s Leaky Defense

Chelsea have now conceded 12 goals in six games across all competitions to start the season. In three games played over the span of six days last week, Arsenal, Leeds United and Hull combined to score seven goals against a porous Blues backline.

The mistakes, lapses in judgment, lack of organization and poor defensive play have become the norm at Stamford Bridge. Perhaps most importantly, Chelsea’s backline seems to lack personality, often getting bullied by opponents and failing to inspire any confidence, much less security.

When asked if he could see a real desire to defend from his players, Alonso’s answer was telling.

“We can do better, we can do better for sure,” Alonso admitted. “We need to know that even when we have the lead, a very important part of the game is to hold together, to keep the distances, to go intense in the situations to defend. I’m sure that we can do better.”

Read more ‘Soft’-Xabi Alonso Is Already Fed Up With Chelsea’s Biggest Issue

“We need to be aware that from any situation, any team in the Premier League can hurt you. Today it was from a long ball, two bounces, the way it happened. You need to be very aware, very ready that the danger can come from any situation. If you are soft or if you are not prepared, you will get punished, and we have been punished that way.”

A Collective Issue Heightened by Individual Struggles

An argument could be made that Chelsea are still adapting to Alonso’s ways. A back-three with wingbacks has been Chelsea’s main defensive formation this season, but Alonso has also deployed a more traditional back-four in a couple of games-including against Hull.

But beyond the natural growing pains of adapting to a new system, it’s also true that a number of Chelsea players are playing far below their best level.

Levi Colwill has struggled mightily since returning from an ACL injury that sidelined him for almost a year. Jorrel Hato has been inconsistent at best, and he egregiously let the ball bounce over him inside the penalty area in the action that led to Hull’s second. Wesley Fofana, Maxence Lacroix, Malo Gusto and Josh Acheampong have also featured regularly in defense and all have contributed to Chelsea’s defensive issues.

Once Robert Sánchez made one mistake too many, Emiliano Martínez was brought in to fix the issues in goal; however, the two-time goalkeeper of the year award-winner has had a mistake-ridden start to his Stamford Bridge career.

There’s only so much Alonso can do to fix Chelsea’s defensive woes. Ultimately, it’s the players that must take accountability and up their level, because the majority of them have started the season on the wrong foot.

No help is on the way, either. If Chelsea’s crop of defenders fail to course correct, then Alonso’s “soft” “entertainers” will undoubtedly continue to drop points in games they should win, significantly complicating the Spaniard’s chance at success in his first season.

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This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 3:36 PM.