Chelsea struggled against Sunderland in the first half today, and Xabi Alonso made a serious change to try and sort things out.

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Xabi Alonso made an interesting change at half time of Chelsea’s defeat against Sunderland today.

He took off a defender for a winger, and dropped a midfielder into defence. It was a change that showed just how clear it was his team needed more impetus going forward.

You can see Alonso speaking in the clip embedded here:

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 8, 2026

Alonso explains unusual substitution

“Levi had a yellow card, we knew that he was going to play in transitions with Brobbey looking for that [second] card. Moi did well, but in attack we didn’t produce enough,” the coach explained.

We liked the change, at least in theory. Usually managers give the second half ten minutes or so to develop before they switch things up, but Alonso was decisive in seeing that things weren’t good enough in defence or attack. He made the most aggressive possible change, and while it didn’t produce the results he wanted, he at least made an effort to alter the course of the game.

There will still be questions about why he left his strikers on the bench for so long, however.

In other news…

Chelsea were very poor in the game, without doubt, but part of their issue came from some very questionable decisions around one penalty given and another not given.

Alonso was asked about his team’s attempts to score, and he admitted they simply hadn’t been good enough in attack.

Mike Penders had a good game, and after the match he complained about the penalty which led to the goal he conceded.