Paul Merson names Chelsea’s biggest ‘worry’ as Xabi Alonso explains Jorrel Hato substitution | OneFootball

Paul Merson has said that Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso needs to sort out his defence, as the Blues conceded two goals against Hull City at Stamford Bridge, with the reason behind Jorrel Hato’s substitution at half-time emerging.

Chelsea played out a 2-2 draw with Hull at home in the Premier League on Saturday.

Morgan Rogers gave Xabi Alonso’s side the lead in the seventh minute, but Mohamed Belloumi scored twice, first in the 28th minute and then in the 34th minute, to put Hull in the lead.

Chelsea restored parity after 66 minutes when Joao Pedro curled a shot into the top corner.

While Chelsea have scored 10 goals in four Premier League games, Alonso’s side have conceded nine times.

Chelsea also shipped in three goals against Leeds United in the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Paul Merson reacts to Chelsea draw with Hull City

According to former Arsenal star and Sky Sports pundit Merson, Chelsea conceding so many goals is a real “worry” for Alonso.

Merson said on Sky Sports News (5:24pm, September 12, 2026) when asked about Chelsea’s defence: “His problem’s going to be, I think, what’s that, four league games and a cup game, or a couple of cup games, definitely one, two cup games, sorry,  that’s what six games they have played this season.

“He won’t know what his best defence is yet.

“He won’t know if it’s the best back three or five or four – that’s a worry.

“He needs to get this sorted.

“Lacroix, I thought, he was left out today.

“He came on at the end, but he has got to get a solid three if he wants to play three at the back and keep them free and give them four or five games.

“It ain’t going to be any worse, they are not going to keep letting those twos in and stay solid.

“Chelsea don’t want to get till December, and we are all sitting here and going, ‘Alonso doesn’t know his best back-three or his best back-four’.

“That’s a worry.

“They need to sort that out.”

Xabi Alonso on Jorrel Hato substitution

Alonso, too, has expressed his disappointment at Chelsea once again failing to keep a clean sheet.

The former Real Madrid manager told Football.London: “Yeah, it’s all maybe entertaining (to watch Chelsea), but I hope that one day you say it was a boring game and we win and we don’t give these entertaining moments, but for sure it kind of repeats some patterns that we are making.

“It will take time to or it will take moments to fix them when we get the lead and you still need to be competing and not to give the chance so easily for them to come back, especially in the first goal, we can do much better.

“It was too soft to give them this hope because until then we were controlling, we were creating chances, but that momentum that we had changed the mood and the score of the game and it’s something that we need to be talking [about], we address and we will get better, but it’s having an impact on our performances at the moment.”

Alonso deployed Hato at left-back against Hull, but the Chelsea boss decided to take him off at half-time.

When asked about that decision, Alonso said: “Tactical.

“We wanted a player with another profile, that with Pep [Chavarria] and Jorrel, it’s different and that was the decision.”