'Tinkerman' Alonso's Chelsea side still searching for identity

Only Tottenham (28) have created more changes than Chelsea (24) in the Premier League this season.

In the early part of the campaign, they at least had a settled and exciting front three of Joao Pedro, Rogers and Palmer.

It was largely the reason behind the positive start to the season despite failing to keep a clean sheet against top-flight opposition until Alonso's eighth game in charge.

With Caicedo injured, they suffered problems in midfield and continued to make changes from match to match, while also experimenting with personnel to fix the defence.

However, they largely looked on course to emulate the back-three system Alonso excelled with during his historic German double-winning season at Bayer Leverkusen in 2023-24.