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Chelsea’s problems mounted as their pre-season tour came to an end in a strangely fiery draw against the Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta’zim. The omens do not look promising with a bloated choice of forwards, echoes of their inexperience and indiscipline last season, and fewer than two weeks for the new manager, Xabi Alonso, to reintegrate key players and work with the entirety of his squad before they kick off the Premier League season against Fulham – managed by his old friend Álvaro Arbeloa – on 24 August.
Alonso, tasked with transforming a club that finished 10th in the Premier League last season into Champions League qualifiers, made 11 changes for the friendly against JDT. He rested players after beating Milan with a strong lineup only 24 hours earlier, 600 miles away.
While the defence and midfield were packed with teenagers, the front three – Estêvão Willian, Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson – would be welcomed by most Premier League clubs, having cost Chelsea more than £100m combined in the past three years.
Delap scored twice from the penalty spot – as many goals in 20 minutes as he managed in the entirety of his first season at Chelsea after joining from Ipswich last summer. The 23-year-old is believed to want to stay and fight for his place, having already proved his Premier League pedigree with 12 top-flight goals for Ipswich. Yet Alonso has so many options: João Pedro, one of the standout strikers last season; the new signing Danny Welbeck; and Jackson, who gave the club something to think about on his loan at Bayern Munich last season.
Emmanuel Emegha arrived recently from sister club Strasbourg, and may well go out on loan. They also still have Marc Guiu on the books.
Mykhailo Mudryk returning unexpectedly early from a drugs ban at the end of July was a curveball, adding to a rich choice of options on the wing including Cole Palmer, Estêvão – looking sharp again on Sunday after an injury that derailed the teenager’s promising first season at Stamford Bridge – and the record signing Morgan Rogers, who frequently played off the left for Aston Villa.
Plenty of time remains before the transfer window closes at the end of the month, but Chelsea’s squad stands at a staggering 41 players, with no European football next season and busy weeks of potential disruption ahead that will not ease Alonso’s stresses.
The JDT manager, Xisco Muñoz, was known for his fierce passion and aggressive football at Watford, and his players treated the game against Chelsea like a competitive fixture at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Johor. They flew into challenges, unsettling Chelsea’s players, competing with an intensity rarely seen in a preseason friendly. The visitors failed to keep tempers in check.
There were several flashpoints throughout the match. Delap and Jackson were needlessly booked for dissent, arguing with the referee about challenges on teammates. Estêvão was lucky not to be sent off after kicking out when he felt he was denied a penalty – instead shown a yellow card.
Geovany Quenda came off the bench and was also booked for launching into an entirely unnecessary challenge, as though settling a score. Sixteen-year-old Reggie Watson was booked in stoppage time, making it five yellow cards.
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Chelsea received 11 red cards last season – twice as many as any other side and a club record – and Alonso has diverged from the owners’ policy of signing young by adding Welbeck, 35, and Jordan Henderson, 36. The club have not fielded a player over 30 since Thiago Silva, then 39, left in May 2024, but it might take more than a couple of veterans to sort the problem out.
JDT took the lead when they caught Chelsea on a break and Arif Aiman – known in these parts as the ‘Asian Messi’ – scored from a rapid move. Delap levelled just before half-time, then gave Chelsea the lead just after the hour. But JDT equalised three minutes later from Óscar Arribas’s heavily deflected free kick, then retook the lead when Bérgson finished into the bottom corner from distance with four minutes remaining. Mudryk, on in the 87th minute, produced the awkward cross that forced Antonio Glauder’s own goal with a minute on the clock, to avoid an embarrassing defeat.
Chelsea return to London after a punishing schedule. Their last three games were in three countries over five days: Juventus in Hong Kong, Milan in Indonesia and JDT in Malaysia – the last two in successive days, their plane landing in Malaysia at 3am on the day of the game.
Alonso has only two weeks – and one final friendly against Real Sociedad on Saturday – to work with the £117m signing Rogers, the injury-prone captain Reece James and the disgruntled star Enzo Fernández, all due back at the club’s Cobham training ground this week following extended World Cup breaks. Then the season will kick off – and the fun and games will really begin.
