{"id":22287,"date":"2026-07-28T09:29:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22287"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:29:44","slug":"chelsea-vs-western-sydney-wanderers-pre-season-friendly-live-blues-new-era-begins-as-xabi-alonso-takes-charge-of-first-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22287","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea vs Western Sydney Wanderers &#8211; pre-season friendly LIVE: Blues&#8217; new era begins as Xabi Alonso takes charge of first game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"js-article-text\" wp_automatic_readability=\"46.787054409006\">\n<div data-channel-color=\"sport\" data-live-blog-header=\"true\" data-media=\"image\" data-platform=\"mol.web.desktop\" data-reactroot=\"\">\n<div class=\"container--aKUPT desktopMode--veTtW\">\n<div class=\"hero--Ge7u8\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/07\/28\/10\/110292425-0-image-a-17_1785230291493.jpg\" fetchpriority=\"high\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"><span class=\"article-timestamp article-timestamp-updated\"> <span class=\"article-timestamp-label\">Updated:<\/span> <time datetime=\"2026-07-28T10:27:17+0100\">  10:27 BST, 28 July 2026 <\/time> <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <!-- ad: https:\/\/mads.dailymail.co.uk\/v8\/de\/sport\/football\/article\/other\/leader_wide.html --> <!-- CWV --><link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/mol-fe\/static\/mol-fe-design-system\/latest\/designTokens.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/><!--(if !IE)><!--> <link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/mol-fe\/static\/mol-fe-async-bundle\/11.90.0\/articleDefer.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/> <!--<!(endif)--> <!--(if IE)>\n<link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/1.17.0\/registration--.css\" media=\"screen\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/>\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if !IE)><!--> <link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/18.6.0\/registration--.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/> <!--<!(endif)--><!--(if IE)>\n<link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/1.17.0\/all-ie8-9--.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/>\n<link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/1.17.0\/all1-ie8-9--.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/>\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if !IE)><!--> <link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/mol-fe\/static\/mol-fe-sync-bundle\/16.14.1\/desktop.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/> <link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/18.6.0\/all--.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/><link href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/18.6.0\/all1--.css\" media=\"all\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/> <!--<!(endif)--> <!--(if IE 8)>\n\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if IE 9)>\n\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if IE)>\n\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if !IE)> -->  <!--<!(endif)--><!-- SiteCatalyst code version: H.20.3.\n    Copyright 1997-2009 Omniture, Inc. More info available at\n    http:\/\/www.omniture.com -->  <\/p>\n<p>         <!-- End SiteCatalyst code version: H.20.3. -->  <!--(if IE)>\n\n<!(endif)--> <!--(if !IE)> -->   <!--<!(endif)--><!--(if IE)>\n  \n  <noscript><link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/gunther\/gunther-2159\/video_bundle--.css\"><\/noscript>\n  \n<!(endif)--> <!--(if !IE)> --> <link rel=\"preload\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/videoplayer\/7.18.0\/styles\/mol-fe-videoplayer.min.css\" as=\"style\" onload=\"this.rel=\" stylesheet=\"\" \/> <noscript><link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/static\/videoplayer\/7.18.0\/styles\/mol-fe-videoplayer.min.css\" \/><\/noscript>  <!-- <!(endif)-->\n          <link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" href=\"https:\/\/scripts.dailymail.com\/static\/mol-fe\/static\/mol-fe-live-blog\/5.2.1\/client\/index.css\" \/>\n          <link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" href=\"https:\/\/scripts.dailymail.com\/static\/mol-fe\/static\/mol-fe-xpmodule-related-puff\/1.6.0\/index.css\" \/>\n<p>            <!-- CWV --><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" wp_automatic_readability=\"6.9894736842105\">\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><span class=\"mol-style-bold\">Follow Daily Mail Sport&#8217;s live coverage for the latest updates as Xabi Alonso leads out Chelsea for the first time as they face Western Sydney Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in Sydney. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>            <!-- ad: https:\/\/mads.dailymail.co.uk\/v8\/de\/sport\/football\/article\/other\/inread_player.html --><\/p>\n<div class=\"column-content cleared\">\n<div class=\"shareArticles\">\n<h3 class=\"social-links-title\">Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Chelsea vs Western Sydney Wanderers &#8211; pre-season friendly LIVE: Blues&#8217; new era begins as Xabi Alonso takes charge of first game<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>            <ad-slot position=\"smart_feed\"><\/ad-slot><\/p>\n<p>            <ad-slot position=\"after_article\"><\/ad-slot><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossOrigin=\"anonymous\"  src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v19.0\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER Updated: 10:27 BST, 28 July 2026 Follow Daily&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22287","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\/22287","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=22287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}