Xabi Alonso Aiming for First Pre-Season Win Against AC Milan
Xabi Alonso has not come to Chelsea to lose practice matches, even if the table is still blank and the stakes are supposedly low. Two defeats on the spin have given his first pre-season a jagged edge, and on Saturday in Jakarta he runs straight into another European giant: AC Milan, unbeaten so far under Ruben Amorim.
The setting is unusual, the names are not. Chelsea and Milan, two clubs with European history etched into their shirts, meeting on Indonesian soil at a time of year usually reserved for tactical experiments and heavy legs.
For Alonso, it already feels like more than that.
Alonso searching for a spark
Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Juventus on Wednesday was not disastrous, but it was flat. The patterns were hesitant, the pressing patchy, the cutting edge still missing. Alonso, meticulous and demanding, now gets another look at his squad in an early kick-off, 8 a.m. EDT, with the game broadcast on CBS Sports Network and FOX Deportes and streamed on Fubo.
He will do it without the headline act of Chelsea’s summer spending. Morgan Rogers, the $155 million arrival and the club’s new attacking centerpiece, will not make his debut in Jakarta after being granted an extended break following the World Cup. The wait to see how Alonso builds his attack around him goes on.
So the responsibility shifts elsewhere.
Danny Welbeck, the surprise signing who raised more eyebrows than banners when he walked through the door, is expected to feature again after making his first appearance in blue against Juventus. At 35, he is not the future of the project, but he can be a bridge: a smart mover, a dressing-room grown-up, a player who can knit together a new manager’s ideas when others are still learning the choreography.
The more intriguing subplot sits out wide.
Mykhailo Mudryk, once the club’s great gamble and then almost a forgotten name, is edging back into the picture. His eight-minute cameo against Juventus was his first Chelsea appearance in almost two years, a brief but symbolic return after testing positive for meldonium in 2024 and then being cleared of the remainder of his ban on appeal. Alonso now has a choice: keep him on the fringes, or start giving him the minutes that turn a comeback into a genuine second chance.
Jakarta might be the night he stretches his legs properly again.
Milan’s clean slate under Amorim
On the opposite bench, Ruben Amorim is quietly building something of his own. Milan have not lost in pre-season, and their last outing – a 1-1 draw with bitter rivals Inter – underlined both their resilience and their need for sharper finishing.
This game is Milan’s final friendly before the real thing begins. After Jakarta, the mood turns serious, the rotations shrink, and Amorim’s ideas must be ready for the unforgiving rhythm of the San Siro.
A win over Chelsea would send Milan home with a perfect preparation narrative: unbeaten tour, a group tuned to the new coach, and momentum rolling into the campaign. Even a draw, if played on their terms, would keep that sense of a clean, upward trajectory.
For Amorim, this is not just another stop on a commercial tour. It is a chance to test his pressing triggers, his defensive line, his attacking rotations against a Premier League squad still wrestling with its own identity.
Stakes beyond the scoreboard
Pre-season games are often dismissed as fitness exercises. This one carries a bit more weight.
Chelsea need to halt a run of losses and give Alonso something to build on when the squad regroups at Cobham. He needs to see combinations that work, leaders who emerge, and perhaps a flash from Mudryk or another fringe player that forces its way into his plans.
Milan, by contrast, are defending a feeling. Unbeaten, confident, buying into Amorim’s methods – they arrive in Jakarta with a rhythm Chelsea do not yet have. Protecting that rhythm, even in a friendly, matters.
Two new managers. Two giants in transition. One last rehearsal for Milan, another test for Chelsea.
By the time the Jakarta heat fades and the final whistle goes, one question will linger: which project looks closer to liftoff?
