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Chelsea take on League Two side Crawley Town today in a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly match and we take a look at the line-up new manager Xabi Alonso could field<\/h2>\n <\/p>\n\n
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\nEstevao Willian chats with Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso(Image: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/p>\n
Chelsea play their first pre-season match of the summer today when Xabi Alonso’s side take on League Two team Crawley Town in a behind-closed-doors friendly.<\/p>\n
While we are unlikely to find out too much information in relation to what happens on the pitch, it does not stop us from speculating the players who could be involved in Alonso ‘s first – albeit unofficial – game as Blues manager. Alonso has been working with a big group of his new first-team players, as well as a few academy stars, over the last week or so since starting work at the club’s Cobham-based training facility.<\/p>\n
Those at the World Cup, or whose country have been knocked out of the competition, are not yet back in Surrey. However, those not selected by their nations (or those that didn’t qualify) have been working with the new gaffer behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE!<\/strong> Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\nAmong those working beneath the glorious Surrey sunshine are Geovany Quenda, Dastan Satpayev and Emmanuel Emegha. All three have been brought in this summer after Chelsea struck pre-agreed deals with Sporting CP, Kairat Almaty and Strasbourg respectively.<\/p>\n
Marco Palestra, the \u00a347million signing from Atalanta, has also been working closely with Alonso and his backroom staff at his new home.<\/p>\n
Estevao Willian is fit again after a serious hamstring injury ruled him out of the World Cup for Brazil. Cole Palmer, after being controversially omitted from the England squad, has been using his time to prepare for the new season and get to know some of his new teammates as well as the staff at Cobham.<\/p>\n
Jamie Gittens has recovered from an injury layoff that saw him miss virtually the entirety of the second half of his debut season at Stamford Bridge. Joao Pedro has also been working hard behind the scenes after being surprisingly left out of Brazil’s World Cup squad.<\/p>\n
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\nJamie Gittens during a Chelsea training session(Image: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
There could be a start for Robert Sanchez against Crawley. Mike Penders, who is set to rival Sanchez for the No.1 spot in west London next season, is on a break after representing Belgium at the World Cup but is set to link up with his new teammates during the club’s four-country pre-season tour later this month\/in early-August.<\/p>\n
Filip Jorgensen wants to leave Chelsea and has informed the club of his intentions but has still been involved in training in recent days.<\/p>\n
Josh Acheampong, who sources say will play a big part under Alonso, has been an ever-present figure in Cobham since pre-season training started. Levi Colwill is still working his way to 100% fitness after recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury for the final few matches of last season.<\/p>\n
Wesley Fofana has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge this summer but the Frenchman has been training like usual with his colleagues over the last week or so. Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo have also been involved after injury-disrupted 2025\/26 seasons – and they will be hoping for much better fortune on that front in the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n
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\nRomeo Lavia doing fitness work during a Chelsea training session(Image: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
With so many senior stars at the World Cup, Alonso has got to know some of the club’s brightest academy talent as well, including: Landon Emenalo, Reggie Walsh, Reggie Watson, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Tayo Subuloye, Shim Mheuka, Calvin Diakite, Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, Genesis Antwi, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Ollie Harrison, Kiano Dyer and Leo Cardoso.<\/p>\n
Many of that list will be hoping to play some part against Crawley and then Bromley in another behind-closed-doors friendly next week. As is so often the case with pre-season games, particularly the early ones, there will be a multitude of changes to the line-up as the match progresses in order to build fitness levels up.<\/p>\n
Here is how Chelsea could set up against Crawley – if Alonso uses the 3-4-2-1 formation he was so successful with during his time at Bayer Leverkusen:<\/p>\n
Dream Chelsea XI (3-4-2-1)<\/strong> : Sanchez; Acheampong, Colwill, Fofana; Palestra, Lavia, Essugo, Quenda; Estevao, Palmer; Emegha<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea take on League Two side Crawley Town today in a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly match…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}