How Xabi Alonso plans on ending Chelsea 'curse' with team selection decision | OneFootball

Blues boss has already hinted at who will get the nod against Leeds

Domestic competitions take on a newfound importance for Chelsea in a season without European football, and that partly explains why Xabi Alonso is expected to go strong against Leeds in the Carabao Cup this evening.

A ghastly Premier League campaign last term left Chelsea tenth in the table, and without European competition. But that did at least guarantee the incoming manager a reduced calendar with greater time on the training pitches at Cobham to work with his players.

The challenge for Chelsea is to make that easing of the schedule pay off in performances and results. The Carabao Cup and FA Cup appear very much the most presentable routes to silverware this season, even if some fans believe once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but seven domestic cup final defeats in a row is compelling enough evidence of a genuine curse.

Alonso and his players will not, and must not, buy into such talk of fortune or fate. The Carabao Cup is a competition under ever-greater scrutiny now England is one of the only major nations with two surviving cup competitions. A few top teams prioritising the Champions League, taking their eyes off the ball, and suddenly Chelsea could be in pole position to lift their first trophy of the Alonso era. It is a competition not to be taken lightly.

Yes, some rotation is expected. In the previous round’s 2-0 win over League One side Luton Town, starts were handed to Mike Penders, Valentin Barco and Danny Welbeck on debut, and there was game time for Jamie Gittens, with Aaron Anselmino and Reggie Watson named on the bench.

Opportunity knocks, and Alonso has indicated the same is true tonight.

“We want to have as many players as possible to be involved and feeling they have an important role,” he said yesterday. “This will be a chance for players that haven't played so much.”

And yet Alonso also handed starts against Luton to Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Maxence Lacroix, handed 90 minutes to captain Reece James. All four could, if the manager had not been taking the competition seriously, have been rested.

In that sense, Chelsea had gone strong. And Leeds caused them enough problems last season to suggest the line-up will be as strong, if not stronger, at Stamford Bridge tonight.

“We don't have Europe, so the cups are important for us,” Alonso insists.

Chelsea’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in 2004-05 was their first piece of silverware under Jose Mourinho, and the charismatic Portuguese used it as a springboard for further success.

“We haven't used that as an example, but I remember it very well — because I was on the other side,” Alonso smiled, at his press conference on Tuesday.

“There is a chance, and once there is a chance, you want to fight for it, knowing where we are coming from and where we are going to.”

Chelsea have real pedigree in the domestic competitions but have fallen short at the final hurdle on each of those last seven cup-final visits to Wembley. It has left them without an FA Cup triumph since 2018 or a Carabao Cup since 2015.

That long drought will not be lost on the club, which is why the visit of Daniel Farke’s Leeds to Stamford Bridge will feel more like an important step on a meaningful journey and less like a freebie for players who rarely play. Mucking up the chance to progress to the fourth round would not be forgotten in a hurry.