Key events
Four of the big summer signings start tonight: Gonzalo Garcia and Cesar Palacios for Fulham, Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix for Chelsea.
Billy Munday
After a season of struggle and regression, with two head coaches and two spells under a caretaker, there is cautious optimism that this campaign will bring something like stability. Much of that optimism centres around the appointment of Xabi Alonso, an elite manager with something to prove. There is also an expectation that the young players brought in as part of BlueCo’s £1.8bn splurge in recent years are beginning to come into their best years. There is no European football to complicate the schedule and a return to the Champions League by finishing in the top four or five would suffice for now. More importance will be placed on the domestic cups after a season without trophies.
Alonso’s squad is more rounded than what Enzo Maresca or Liam Rosenior had at their disposal. Maxence Lacroix and Morgan Rogers bring quality to positions where Chelsea were lacking it – at centre-back and out wide. Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson – the “uncs” as Tosin Adarabioyo has called them – will contribute as much off the pitch as on it. The signing of Marco Palestra, a specialist wing-back, suggests Alonso wants to be tactically flexible. He has used a back four and a back three in pre-season.
John Brewin
Marco Silva cutting the cord after five years by the river came as little surprise. If his time at Craven Cottage was successful in re-establishing Fulham as a Premier League club, he rarely concealed his ambitions to manage in European competition. He was frequently explicit in his disappointment that the club’s ownership did not meet him halfway by funding a stronger squad. Silva’s powers of rebadging and replenishing talent will be missed now that he has decamped to Benfica. Under him, Fulham played entertaining football, a collection of ugly ducklings showing their renewed worth for a club that, despite falling short of European qualification, looked upwards rather than downwards at the relegation battle. They were often a pleasure to watch, and ornery opposition for all-comers.
Álvaro Arbeloa is a very different type of appointment, with far less experience than his predecessor in frontline coaching terms, even if he arrives with Real Madrid on his CV. His arrival, though, has opened up a working relationship with the Spanish aristos, Gonzalo García and César Palacios arriving to work with a coach who helped them through the ranks in Madrid. By little coincidence, all three share the same agency as their representatives. There have been links with Endrick and Thiago Pitarch, two further young Real jewels, leading to a sense of Fulham becoming some form of Madrileño nursery, a Santiago Bernabéu on Thames. Should that play out, it would represent another sea change.
Team news
Fulham (4-2-3-1) Leno; Castagne, Bassey, Cuenca, Robinson; King, Berge; Bobb, Iwobi, Palacios; Garcia.
Subs: Lecomte, Tete, Reed, Rodrigo Muniz, Kevin, Charles, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe, De Fougerolles.
Chelsea (3-4-2-1) Sanchez; Acheampong, Lacroix, Colwill; Gusto, James, Lavia, Hato; Palmer, Rogers; Joao Pedro.
Subs: Penders, Barco, Pedro Neto, Fernandez, Bynoe-Gittens, Welbeck, Quendal, Chavarria, Estevao.
Referee John Brooks.
Jacob Steinberg
It is a necessary reset. Although it would be pushing it to say that Chelsea have switched from development centre to retirement home, even after the signings of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck, there has been a clear shift in strategy this summer. Some grownups are in the room at last and, for Xabi Alonso, the hope is that bringing in more experience will help a squad still packed with youngsters show more composure when adversity strikes.
Discipline was a problem for Chelsea last season: they had 11 red cards in all competitions and a lot of the wounds were self-inflicted. Chelsea were impetuous, on the receiving end of too many bookings for dissent and prone to collapsing at the first sign of trouble. No wonder Alonso, who was the epitome of calm during his playing career, has focused on maintaining “emotional control” before opening his tenure as manager with Monday’s trip to Fulham.
It will be a test of Chelsea’s mentality. Craven Cottage has been the setting for some spectacular implosions during the BlueCo era, the path to two 2-1 victories for Fulham over their neighbours smoothed by João Félix earning a red card on his Chelsea debut in 2023 and by Marc Cucurella getting himself sent off after 22 minutes last season.
Preamble
Good evening and welcome to live coverage of Fulham v Chelsea at Craven Cottage. A west London derby, involving the last two managers of Real Madrid, should a solid entertainment option, especially as the alternatives on UK television include Street Cops: Catching the Yobs, Donnie Swaggart* and a repeat of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in which Marty says his grave is being disturbed, and Jeff uncovers a plan to kidnap the heir to a fortune.
Álvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso will surely last longer in SW6 than they did in Madrid, where a P45 was luzzed in their direction after roughly half a season each. Arbeloa’s task is to maintain the mid-table security that Marco Silva brought to Fulham, who have finished between 10th and 13th in the four seasons since they were promoted. If it goes really well, and he’s feeling frisky, Arbeloa might even take Fulham into Europe for the first time since 2011-12.
Qualifying for Europe is the bare minimum for Alonso, especially as Chelsea failed to achieve that last season. For the ninth richest club in the world to finish tenth domestically might be described in some cultures as sub-optimal. But in the short term, the lack of European football could be a blessing in disguise as Alonso tries to stabilise a club that has been all over the show in recent years.
With Alonso in charge, Chelsea have the potential to take a shortcut back towards the top of the Premier League. There’s an argument that, on paper, only Arsenal have a stronger squad. It’s time to see whether they are worth a damn on the pitch.
Kick off 8pm.
* Alas, this isn’t a mash-up of Donnie Darko, Sweeney Todd and Taggart.