The comfortable nature of Chelsea’s 5-1 victory over Bournemouth allowed Xabi Alonso to turn to his bench late on and hand Marco Palestra his debut for the club.

The Blues raced into their quickest ever 2-0 lead through Jordan Henderson and Morgan Rogers, before a Joao Pedro brace and a Henderson free-kick put the icing on a superb display.

Palestra missed the opening part of the season due to injury, after initially making his mark during the club’s pre-season campaign.

Chelsea put FIVE past Bournemouth – who was your Man of the Match?

Braces for Jordan Henderson and Joao Pedro 👀

What Chelsea sources are saying about Marco Palestra

However, the Italian is now back in contention to start for the Blues following his debut, and has clearly made an impression on both coaches and teammates during the training sessions leading into this game.

Kieran Gill has shared that Chelsea sources have told him that Palestra has been a standout performer recently, stating: “Someone close to the Chelsea team mentioned recently that Marco Palestra had been killing it in training, impressing everyone. He’s now on for his Premier League debut. £47m summer signing from Atalanta.”

Palestra is a wing-back by trade, usually playing on the right but showing during pre-season he has the ability to feature on either side, helped by the fact he is left-footed.

Pedro Neto and Pep Chavarria started in those positions against Bournemouth, and both picked up assists for Pedro in the second half.

It is a nice problem for Alonso to have multiple players in those positions pushing for a start, with Jorrel Hato an unused option on the bench today.

It remains to be seen if the Spaniard fancies rotating a winning side for their next league game away from home against Everton, with Palestra no doubt set to continue to push for his first start for the club.

The first opportunity may have to wait until the EFL Cup returns. Chelsea will return to Merseyside for that game to face Liverpool at Anfield.