Xabi Alonso put his Chelsea players through their paces ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues are hard at work at the Cobham training ground as they prepare to host Roberto De Zerbi’s side at Stamford Bridge.
Last weekend, “Chelsea” won over “Everton” with a score of 2:0 and moved up to the fourth place in the Premier League. Then, on Monday evening, the Lilywhites climbed out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 win over Coventry City.
While Spurs may be on cloud nine after picking up their first three points of the season, the Blues have won each of their last six meetings. The Tottenham boss has also never beaten Alonso in a competitive match, losing to Real Madrid in their only encounter against Marseille in the ‘league stage’ of the Champions League last year.
However, De Zerbi and the Chelsea manager locked horns in a pre-season friendly earlier this year. In Alonso’s second game in charge, Richarlison, who ironically has since been dropped from the squad, scored a stoppage-time winner at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
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The Blues have since progressed under the Spaniard, while the Lilywhites have been embroiled in a battle for top-flight survival. So, with that being said, football.london looked at five things you missed in Chelsea training this week.
Neto was given an honor guard
Pedro Neto was given a guard of honor earlier this week for his contribution to the victory over Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The winger fired Chelsea to victory on Merseyside with two brilliant strikes, prompting his team-mates to send him to the slap tunnel afterwards.
Hato is in a great mood
Jorrel Hato was seen in great spirits at Cobham this week. The defender was also excellent for Chelsea at the weekend, replacing Pep Chavarria in the starting line-up after a late warning.
Three “Chelsea” youngsters are involved
Mehdi Nicoll-Jazuli, Reggie Watson and Olutayo Subuloye, who were recently named in the match day squad, took part in first team training this week. ‘Cobham Next Gen’ and Chelsea Under-18s both have games on Saturday afternoon at Kingsmeadow at 2pm and at the training ground at 12pm respectively, so it’s impossible, of course not, for them to travel to face Tottenham!
Penders is thrown into the deep end
Mike Penders was thrown into the deep end at practice this week. The Chelsea goalkeeper was included in a small-sided game with the rest of the outfield players; Interestingly, he was the only player wearing a fluorescent yellow bib, one team orange and the other white.
In an extreme test of footwork, Penders may have been designated a “magic man” during a given practice, a role that gives a player the freedom to play for the team he owns. In doing so, it helps create congestion, encouraging quick passing, quick decision-making and intelligent movement into pockets of space, while simulating small-scale transitions and turnovers.
Alonso is likely to expect De Zerbi’s side to get high press at the weekend, so will want Penders to be confident with his feet in tight close situations.
Gusto and Chavarria are still missing
Malo Gusto and Chavarria were absent from the latest batch of training pictures and videos released by domestic media. The former was injured in a clash last weekend, while the latter was taken ill at the eleventh hour while away on Merseyside.