Chelsea Aims for Improvement in Jakarta Amid Familiar Opposition
Chelsea seek a change of gear in Jakarta, but the opposition will feel very familiar.
After being edged 1-0 by Juventus in Hong Kong on Wednesday, days on from defeat to Tottenham, Xabi Alonso walks into another Italian examination on the next leg of Chelsea’s Asian tour. The scorelines have been narrow. The questions around his new side are not.
This is the stretch of pre-season where a manager usually starts to see patterns, partnerships, a hint of the team’s true shape. Alonso is still stuck in the sketching phase. Two losses in a row are not a crisis in July, yet they do sharpen the focus on how quickly his ideas can take hold before the Premier League kicks off.
Fitness clouds hang over two of his key pillars. Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill both missed the Juventus game with minor issues and remain doubts here. Palmer is the creative nerve of this Chelsea project, Colwill a central figure in any attempt to build from the back. Without them, Alonso is forced to experiment again, shuffling roles and responsibilities while trying to keep a coherent structure.
One returning figure offers a very different kind of storyline. Mykhailo Mudryk, back on the pitch for the first time in 20 months after his doping ban was lifted last week, is suddenly in the frame to start. His last Chelsea start came in November 2024; the gap since then has been filled with uncertainty, scrutiny and silence. Now there is only the question of what he can give this team.
His cameo in midweek was tentative at times but electric in flashes. Sharp changes of direction, a willingness to drive at defenders, that restless urge to break games open. If Alonso wants more thrust and risk in the final third, Mudryk is the obvious card to play. Jakarta could be the night he steps back into the spotlight from the first whistle.
The scheduling adds another twist. This match is the front half of a weekend double-header, with Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta'zim waiting on Sunday. It forces a split-screen approach to selection. Who starts now, with the manager demanding a response after back-to-back defeats? Who is held back, protected, saved for the second game?
Some will be asked to go again, to shoulder minutes and responsibility. Others may be “put on ice,” watching from the bench while staff manage workloads and monitor knocks. For the younger faces in this squad, it is an opening: two matches in two days, two chances to convince a new manager that they belong in his plans when the serious business begins.
Chelsea’s tour of Asia was never about the results alone, yet the mood music matters. Another flat performance and the narrative around Alonso’s start will turn quickly. A sharper display, a few attacking patterns that look repeatable, and the tone of this trip changes just as fast.
Jakarta offers no trophies and no points. What it does offer is a stage: for Alonso’s ideas to finally click, for Mudryk to reclaim his Chelsea story, and for a squad still searching for rhythm to show that these early stumbles are no more than that.
