Chelsea’s Jakarta Jolt: Alonso’s 3-0 Victory Over AC Milan
Chelsea did not just win in Jakarta. They reset the tone of their pre-season.
After back-to-back defeats and a flat showing against Juventus, Xabi Alonso’s side produced their sharpest performance under the new head coach, dismantling AC Milan 3-0 with a display that finally looked like a team stepping into his ideas rather than feeling them out.
The scoreline was clear. The message even clearer.
Alonso goes all-in on 3-4-3
The tactical halfway house is gone. No more flirting between a back four and a back three. In Indonesia, Alonso committed fully to his trademark 3-4-3, and Chelsea immediately looked more coherent, more aggressive, more themselves.
Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia took centre stage in midfield. Caicedo repeatedly dropped into the back line to start moves, dictating the tempo from deep. Lavia locked onto Luka Modric and barely let him breathe. Milan’s veteran playmaker drifted through the game on the periphery; Chelsea’s double pivot ran it.
Out wide, Marco Palestra turned the left flank into a runway. The 21-year-old’s two-footedness made him a constant puzzle for Milan’s right side. He could drive to the byline, cut inside, or simply recycle and go again. Every time he received the ball, the pitch seemed to tilt Chelsea’s way.
This wasn’t just a shape on a tactics board. It was a structure with teeth.
Set pieces with an edge
Chelsea scored 10 goals from corners in the entire 2025/26 Premier League season. They scored two from corners in 90 minutes in Jakarta.
Austin McPhee has barely unpacked his bags as the club’s new set-piece coach, yet his fingerprints were all over this win. Runners peeled, blockers engaged, and Milan’s defence looked constantly unsettled whenever Caicedo wandered over to take a corner.
Right on the stroke of half-time, the work paid off. In first-half stoppage time, Joao Pedro ghosted away from goalkeeper Lorenzo Torriani, lost his marker, and glanced Caicedo’s corner into the far corner. Simple movement, ruthless execution. A training-ground routine landing perfectly on matchday.
Three minutes into the second half, another dead ball brought another hammer blow. A corner was only half-cleared to the edge of the box, where Caicedo, now lurking as the spare man, met it with a crisp volley to make it 3-0. No fuss, no backlift, just a clean strike that underlined his growing authority in this side.
For a team that has too often wasted their height and physicality from set plays, this felt like a new weapon being unsheathed.
Joao Pedro answers his own question
The night belonged to Joao Pedro.
He could have set the tone even earlier. On 42 minutes, Palestra cut inside with the assurance of a winger, slid a clever pass into Joao Pedro’s path, and the Brazilian had the goal at his mercy. He leant back, snatched at it, and scooped his first-time effort over the bar. Hands on head. A bad miss.
Two minutes into added time, he fixed it.
Same player, different outcome. This time from a corner, he peeled off unnoticed, met Caicedo’s delivery, and nodded Chelsea in front. From frustration to redemption in one swing of the neck.
Then, right after the restart, he struck again.
Milan made seven changes at half-time and were still reorganising when Chelsea sliced them open. Pedro Neto swung in an inviting in-swinging cross from the right, the kind forwards dream about. Joao Pedro drifted to the back post, read the flight better than anyone, and prodded in from close range. Two goals in as many minutes of play either side of the interval. Game over.
Pre-season or not, that is the kind of clinical edge Alonso will cling to.
Neto, Caicedo, and a growing spine
This was not just about the goals. It was about the authority with which Chelsea controlled the contest.
Pedro Neto, operating from the right, had already tested Torriani on 27 minutes with a curling effort that forced the Milan goalkeeper into a full-stretch save. His delivery for Joao Pedro’s second was the sort of ball that makes a manager’s system look devastating when it works.
Behind him, Caicedo did almost everything. Corner taker, deep playmaker, auxiliary centre-back, goalscorer. He slid in and out of the back three, kept Chelsea’s build-up calm, and then stepped up to lash home the third from distance. Lavia complemented him with energy and discipline, shadowing Modric and shutting down Milan’s creative supply.
This was the kind of midfield performance that gives a formation its spine.
Bench energy and the woodwork’s revenge
Alonso will be just as encouraged by what came from the bench.
Geovany Quenda arrived and immediately went at his defender. On 74 minutes he squared up his man in the Milan area, burst past him, and hammered a shot against the near post. It deserved better.
Nicolas Jackson, introduced for the final half-hour, played like a striker with a point to prove. He knitted play together, produced a clever reverse pass to open up a chance for Cole Palmer, and then nearly scored himself. On 83 minutes, Jackson danced in from the left, beat his man, and crashed a low effort against the upright. Again, the post came to Milan’s rescue.
Even late on, Chelsea kept coming. Estevao broke down the right in the 87th minute, went straight for goal, and tried to lift the ball over Torriani. The Milan keeper stood tall and tipped it over, one of the few times he came out on top in the one-on-ones.
The scoreline stayed at three. The chances suggested it could have been far worse for Milan.
A win that feels bigger than the score
Pre-season results are not supposed to matter. Coaches insist it is all about minutes, patterns, and fitness.
Yet after a 6-4 shootout in Sydney, a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham, and a blunt 1-0 loss to Juventus, this 3-0 win over Milan felt significant. Not because of the margin, but because of the clarity.
The 3-4-3 finally looked like a platform, not an experiment. Palestra’s versatility gave Chelsea a new dimension at wing-back. Caicedo and Lavia looked like a partnership that can anchor a season. McPhee’s set-piece influence turned dead balls into live threats. And players like Jackson and Quenda showed there is depth and hunger beyond the starting XI.
Next up is Johor Darul Ta'zim, then Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge. The opposition will change, the stakes will rise, and the scrutiny will sharpen.
The question now is not whether Alonso has an idea. It is how far, and how fast, this Chelsea side can grow into it.
