Chelsea's Tour in Jakarta: Alonso Seeks Early Spark
Chelsea’s Asian tour reaches Jakarta on Saturday, and the mood is already edgy.
Back-to-back defeats – Tottenham at the weekend, Juventus in midweek – have given Xabi Alonso an early taste of the scrutiny that comes with the Chelsea job. Pre-season is supposed to be about patterns, fitness, quiet progress. Instead, the new manager arrives in Indonesia needing a performance that looks like the start of something, not just another training exercise under stadium lights.
Alonso searching for a spark
The 1-0 loss to Juventus in Hong Kong was flat. Chelsea moved the ball, but rarely hurt their opponents. The tempo dipped, the press lacked bite, and the attack never truly clicked. For a coach trying to impose a clear identity before the Premier League kicks off, that kind of drift is exactly what he will want to stamp out.
So Jakarta becomes another test against Italian organisation, another chance to adjust his shape, his pressing triggers, his combinations in the final third. Alonso has already shown a willingness to tinker. Expect more of it here. Different partnerships. Different build-up routes. Possibly a different tone altogether.
He needs rhythm. He needs signs that this group is absorbing his ideas. The result may not define his summer, but another laboured display would add a little more tension to a tour that was meant to build calm.
Fitness questions and a long-awaited return
Team selection will be shaped by the medical room as much as the tactics board.
Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill, both absent against Juventus with minor issues, remain doubts. Their absence strips Chelsea of two pillars: Palmer’s creativity between the lines and Colwill’s composure at the back. Alonso will not gamble with either, not at this stage of July, but their availability – or lack of it – will heavily influence the balance of his side.
The more intriguing story sits further up the pitch. Mykhailo Mudryk, back in action for the first time in 20 months after his doping ban was lifted last week, is suddenly an option again. He featured in midweek and now stands on the brink of a first Chelsea start since November 2024.
For the player, Jakarta could be a reset button. For the manager, he is a wild card: raw pace, direct running, a threat in transition. If Alonso wants to jolt his team out of their current lethargy, unleashing Mudryk from the opening whistle is a tempting way to do it.
Managing a double-header
Complicating everything is the schedule. Today’s game in Jakarta is only half the assignment. Chelsea face Johor Darul Ta'zim in Malaysia on Sunday, a weekend double-header that forces Alonso to think like a tournament coach rather than a friendly tourist.
He cannot run his core players into the ground across two matches in two days. Some will be asked to go deep today, others will be held back for Johor. The decisions will reveal plenty about the internal pecking order and who is closest to starting when the real football begins.
Does Alonso load this first fixture with experience to chase a statement performance after two defeats? Or does he spread his big names across both games, prioritising minutes and conditioning over narrative?
Jakarta will offer the first clues. After a stuttering start to pre-season, Chelsea do not just need a win. They need a night that looks and feels like the beginning of Alonso’s Chelsea, not just another stop on a long, restless tour.
