Alonso: We came to win, we weren't that far off

Xabi Alonso commented on Chelsea's 2-1 defeat to Arsenal in the highly anticipated third-round derby of the English Premier League. The Blues initially took an early lead through Morgan Rogers, but ultimately succumbed to a comeback, with goals from Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard, marking their first loss since Alonso took charge at the start of the season.

"My priority is to win matches, and it's easier when you don't suffer many losses. This is something we need to address. We want to be tighter, more clinical, more balanced. But that takes time.

We came here to compete, we came to win. We weren't that far off, but things went their way. We could have scored and made it 2-1, but you never know what might happen. The result is what it is, I'm not fighting against that. It hurts. But this is the first loss, it will be a long journey, and it doesn't have a major impact on our morale.

I want to compete in the best possible way to win. We didn't want to sit back from the first minute and wait. We wanted to be active, to be the main protagonists in the press – sometimes higher, sometimes lower, to have good possession. And we did many things right. Now we need to improve them," Alonso stated.

The manager remained optimistic that Moisés Caicedo's absence was not a long-term issue, after the midfielder missed the Arsenal derby due to injury. Caicedo has yet to start a match this season, and it remains uncertain whether he will return for Chelsea's Carabao Cup clash against Ilia Gruev's Leeds this week.

"It's about risk assessment. We probably brought him back too early last week, and I don't want to make the same mistake again," Alonso clarified.