Xabi Alonso attones for big Chelsea mistake and key talking points from Leeds win | OneFootball

Blues completed a stirring Carabao Cup comeback

Talk of Chelsea possessing the most fearsome attack in the land will only increase after this.

Two goals down and facing a humbling Carabao Cup exit at home to Leeds United with Xabi Alonso’s much-changed line-up inviting scrutiny, his emergency half-time quadruple substitution began to pay off.

The Blues scored four goals in 12 second-half minutes and added two more besides, securing their place in the hat for the fourth round with a 6-3 win and eliminating the visitors with a brutal, ruthless goalscoring performance after the interval.

Debutant struggles as selections backfire

Chelsea are only involved in three competitions this season and had gone strong in the previous round against Luton Town, so Alonso was expected to do so again for the visit of Leeds, taking the Carabao Cup seriously.

Instead, he sprung a surprise, rotating heavily and handing a senior debut to 16-year-old Reggie Watson in midfield.

Picking such a second team backfired. Watson had impressed in pre-season games against Western Sydney Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan and Johor Darul Ta'zim but struggled to summon the same level of composure at Stamford Bridge.

He made a few shrewd interceptions but also some rash tackles and was booked for one on Harry Wilson. It was not much of a surprise when he was one of four players ruthlessly hooked at the interval.

A 4-3-3 formation with Watson at the base of midfield and Valentin Barco and Malo Gusto ahead of him had failed to land a glove on Leeds. At half-time, Alonso replaced Gusto, Watson, Estevao and Jamie Gittens and introduced Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Pedro Neto and captain Reece James. The big guns did the rest.

Palmer’s supreme impact

Alonso’s drastic measures — the four-man substitution — did not make things instantly better. In fact, before they got better they got worse, going 2-0 down.

But soon enough, that newly-introduced attacking firepower got to work and Palmer spearheaded Chelsea’s breathless comeback from two goals down.

His powerful penalty - awarded softly for a supposed foul on Pep Chavarria - got Chelsea back into it, and then he finished beautifully with a tucked pass round the defender and into the corner from a Rogers knock-down.

That was first of three assists in ten minutes for Rogers, and arguably four in 12. Neto scored, and Barco - from Rogers’s work, if not directly from his pass - scored too. And Danny Welbeck, twice.

Star: Cole Palmer

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Goalscorer glee

Almost as pleasing for the manager as the victory itself will have been the personnel who scored the six goals, given the boost it should give each player looking ahead.

Palmer has started the season in fine form and his influence, netting twice, will have done his confidence the world of good as Chelsea’s new-look attack of him alongside Rogers and Joao Pedro continues to develop into a lean and mean front three.

Neto is having to play plenty of his minutes as a wing-back, with more than half an eye on tracking his runner back towards his own goal. That requires defensive discipline and somewhat parking his natural attacking instincts, so netting - and in such fine style - will have felt sweet for the Portuguese, who had transfer interest this summer but who Chelsea never wanted to sell.

A brace for Danny Welbeck will have pleased Alonso immensely, given he was signed as an earnest back-up for Joao Pedro with the intention for pushing the Brazilian. And Barco, who hammered home with the fourth goal that Rogers had created on the night, deserved to be on the scoresheet for a tireless, terrier-like display in midfield. His bite in the tackle had been a constant, on a night when Chelsea's bite collectively had not.

The Blues hit six, and each and every one came after the 52nd minute. What came before had duly been forgotten. What came after was a warning to the rest of the Premier League of how devastating their attack can be.