João Pedro Shines in Chelsea's 6-4 Pre-Season Thriller
Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea reign began with chaos, goals and a glimpse of the fault lines he wants to fix. Ten of them flew in at the Accor Stadium, a 6-4 pre-season win over Western Sydney Wanderers that said as much about Chelsea’s attacking firepower as it did their defensive fragility.
The noise around the club, though, was not just about the scoreline. It was about age.
Reports in England had already framed this tour match as the backdrop to a sharp turn in Chelsea’s transfer policy: talks over a surprise move for 35-year-old Danny Welbeck from Brighton and interest in 36-year-old Jordan Henderson at Brentford. Two veterans, two Premier League survivors, linked with a club that has spent the last two years stockpiling youth and handing out marathon contracts.
Alonso was not biting.
“I’m sure that from today to the last day of the transfer window there will be a lot of links, a lot of rumours,” he said afterwards, refusing to be drawn on either name. “So to be commenting on all of them, it’s going to be a hard task. But for sure, we need proper balance in terms of qualities, in terms of positions, in terms of balance. We want to have a complete squad and we want to make a good team.”
That word again. Balance. On this evidence, he will need it.
A wild first night
Alonso sent out a notably young side in Homebush. Liam Delap and Tosin Adarabioyo were the senior figures in a starting XI that looked more like an academy showcase than a Premier League powerhouse.
It took six minutes for the kids to justify the gamble.
Dastan Satpayev, just 17 and still only a triallist, announced himself with a ruthless finish at the near post after a piercing through ball from fellow teenager Ryan Kavuma-McQueen. One pass cut open the Wanderers’ back line; one swing of Satpayev’s right boot made it 1-0 and underlined why Chelsea have him under close inspection.
The fun at the top end of the pitch masked a more uncomfortable story at the back. Chelsea’s defence looked loose, their set-piece work even looser. Against a Wanderers side that finished bottom of their domestic league last season, the back four struggled to cope with a lively front line and basic deliveries into the box.
From a corner, Brandon Borrello and Anthony Pantazopoulos attacked the ball with far too much freedom. Pantazopoulos rose at the back post to score, a moment that will have gone straight into the in-tray of Austin MacPhee, the Aston Villa set-piece specialist Chelsea are reported to have brought in.
The Wanderers had already struck through Aydan Hammond, and while a composed finish from Portuguese midfielder Dário Essugo dragged Chelsea level at 2-2 by half-time, the pattern was clear: every attack looked like it could end in a goal. For either side.
João Pedro flips the script
The second half began with the same breathless tempo. Landon Emenalo, impressive going forward from left-back, saw a clearance ricochet cruelly into the path of Dylan Scicluna, who pounced to put Western Sydney 3-2 ahead.
That was the trigger. Alonso turned to his bench.
On came the cavalry: Cole Palmer, João Pedro and a cluster of first-team regulars. The change in tone was instant. The tempo of Chelsea’s passing lifted, the movement sharpened, the Wanderers’ back line suddenly stretched.
João Pedro, who had cut a frustrated figure last winter when he missed out on Carlo Ancelotti’s World Cup squad, needed only a few touches to impose himself. First, he bullied his way through a crowd on the edge of the area and had the awareness to pull the ball back for Jamie Gittens, who finished from close range. 3-3, and Chelsea finally looked like a grown-up team again.
The match refused to settle. Estêvão Willian lost the ball cheaply near his own box, Awan Lual seized on the error and slipped his finish through Robert Sánchez’s legs. Wanderers led for a third time. A pre-season run-out had turned into a mini-epic.
That was the moment João Pedro took over.
He struck twice in five minutes with the kind of composure that marked his first year at Stamford Bridge, when he hit 20 goals in an outstanding debut campaign after a £60m move from Brighton. Timing, touch, finish – all there. When he then scrambled in a third from a corner to complete a nine-minute hat-trick, the contest was over and Chelsea had finally overpowered their A-League hosts.
Asked about the Brazilian’s mood ahead of the new season, Alonso did not hesitate. “Very hungry. João is really, really determined to have a great season. He wants to, after a great last year, when he scored many goals. He wants to keep scoring more and more.”
On this evidence, that hunger has not dimmed.
Delap’s frustration, Alonso’s dilemma
If João Pedro’s night crackled with purpose, Delap’s told a different story. The 23-year-old, repeatedly linked with a move away from west London, worked hard, found good positions and twice went close. The net never bulged.
It felt like a familiar tale: plenty of endeavour, little reward.
Alonso, at least publicly, sounded satisfied with the striker’s response since returning from his summer break. “I see him in a good mood, in a good desire to get proper fitness, proper football, feeling good and he’s doing great,” he said.
The subtext is harder to ignore. Chelsea are openly exploring a shift towards experience, targeting players with hundreds of Premier League games behind them, while still trying to develop – or cash in on – their younger assets. Delap sits right in the middle of that crossroads.
So does the team itself. A 6-4 scoreline in late July can be dismissed as pre-season theatre, and in many ways it was: open spaces, tired legs, wild swings in momentum. Yet inside the chaos lay the themes that will define Alonso’s first year.
A forward in João Pedro who looks ready to carry a serious goal burden. A teenager in Satpayev pushing hard for a contract. A defensive unit that needs structure. A club flirting with Welbeck and Henderson in a bid to steady a dressing room built on potential.
Alonso has his “proper balance” mantra. Nights like this in Sydney showed just how far Chelsea still have to travel to find it.
