LONDON — Xabi Alonso says his Chelsea side must show more desire in defence, and warns it will take time to fix their frailties at the back after they drew 2-2 with Hull City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Chelsea took the lead after just seven minutes through Morgan Rogers, but it was Hull who went into the break 2-1 up after they profited on Chelsea’s defensive uncertainty to grab two through Mohamed Belloumi. Hull were good for their lead, but Chelsea drew level in the 65th minute through João Pedro. Both teams had chances to win, with Mohamed-Ali Cho drawing a good save from Emi Martínez, but the match ended all square.
It’s now 20 Premier League matches since Chelsea kept a clean sheet, and they’ve already shipped nine goals in their first four top flight games this term. Alonso admits it is a concern.
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“I hope one day you appreciate a boring game and we win,” Alonso said. “It repeats some patterns we are making. It will take time to fix the moments. We still need to be competing and not to give away easy chances for them to come back. For the first goal we can do much better. That momentum we had changed after the goal, the mood, the score of the game. We are talking and addressing it, but it’s having an impact on performances.
“I think that we are attacking better than defending. It’s a big topic and a big theme for us. For sure it’s just four games, but the dynamic … I don’t like it and we need to do much better [in] open play, set pieces, long balls, this toughness, this competitive sense we can do better.”
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And when asked if they need to show more desire in their defending, Alonso answered: “We can do better. We can do better for sure. 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 situation to defend and I’m sure that we can do better.”
For newly promoted Hull, this maintains their unbeaten start to the season. They’ve defeated Manchester United and Coventry City, and have drawn with Aston Villa and Chelsea. Hull manager Sergej Jakirovic said that’s met his pre-season target of points for this part of the season and hitting that threshold means he will give his staff a week off over the forthcoming international break.
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“Of course I’m pleased — this point is very good for us,” Jakirovic said. “We played good, we were compact, aggressive in the right moments. We knew they’d push more in the second half. Martinez saved a few excellent shots, we had the opportunity to control things better in certain positions. At 2-2 the game could’ve gone both sides. I think it’s a fair result.”
Jakirovic had Sorba Thomas on the bench, just a day after the Wales international was involved in a car accident. “You saw the images? He’s Max Verstappen,” Jakirovic said of the accident. “Everything is fine, thank God. An accident which could happen to anyone. I asked him how he felt, he said he was fine, that was enough for me.”
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And despite Hull’s impressive start to the season, Jakirovic said their pre-season aim remains the same: survival. “We want to stay in the league and collect as many points as possible,” he said.
