Xabi Alonso admits he made ‘mistake’ with Chelsea star after Arsenal defeat | Football

Xabi Alonso admitted he made a ‘mistake’ with Moises Caicedo after Chelsea’s Premier League defeat to Arsenal.

Influential midfielder Caicedo missed Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Fulham and was left out of the Carabao Cup win over Luton Town.

Caicedo got his first minutes of the season in Chelsea’s thrilling win over Brighton last weekend, coming on in the 68th minute to replace Pedro Neto.

But Caicedo lasted just 14 minutes before hobbling off and being replaced by Chelsea summer signing Valentin Barco.

The latest setback ruled Caicedo out of Chelsea’s huge Premier League clash against Arsenal on Sunday, which Alonso’s side lost 2-1.

Alonso insisted Caicedo did not have a ‘long term’ injury but admitted it was a ‘mistake’ to bring him back ‘too early’.

‘It is not longer term but it’s about assessing the risk,’ Alonso said when asked for an update on the midfielder after Chelsea lost at Arsenal.

‘Probably, last week, we took him too early and I don’t want to make the same mistake again.

‘It’s easy after defeats to talk about the players that you are missing. I’m not going to go there, I am happy with the players that we have.

‘For sure all the managers need to deal with injuries, with suspensions. To have all the players available for all the games is impossible.

‘But we need [Caicedo and Colwill] because they are top players and with them we are a better team.’

Discussing Chelsea’s defeat more generally, Alonso added: ‘It was a game with different stages of momentum. We started the game well, scoring first, and the next 15 minutes they were really pushing us hard.

‘We were defending low, struggling to have a little bit more of the ball to play a little bit more on the pitch.

‘So those 15 minutes were hard and we had to suffer. Once we conceded the goal for 1-1 the game came back to an even level, from them, from us.

‘We had a couple of good chances before the end of the first half, but at half-time we spoke. It was a very close game, very intense.

‘For sure, the second goal, we could’ve done a little bit better. It’s a part of the game you need to accept because they are a top side and they push you to the limits.

‘They overload a lot on the left side with many players and after that got the goal with Odegaard. But after that we have kept going and the team showed really good desire and good spirit to fight until the end. We were close with the chance from Este.

‘So it’s a defeat, we are disappointed, it needs to hurt, but it needs to hurt in a positive way because it’s just game three. There are still many games to play and we knew it was going to be a very intense game today.’

More to follow…

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