Xabi Alonso gets off to a winning start at Chelsea with maiden victory in closed-door friendly against League Two minnows Crawley

Chelsea

won

Xabi Alonso

’s first unofficial game in charge on Saturday – a behind-closed-doors friendly versus League Two side Crawley Town.

Daily Mail Sport has been told the scoreline was 3-1 to the

Premier League

club, and the scorers were Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap and Emmanuel Emegha.

We are also told those players available essentially played 45 minutes each with pre-season under Alonso starting at Cobham last Thursday on July 9.

There was academy representation in the friendly with several youngsters having been involved in first-team training since the 2026-27 preparations began.

Among the Cobham reps, Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli and Landon Emenalo started for Alonso's side, while Reggie Watson, Reggie Walsh, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Calvin Diakite and Genesis Antwi all came on at half-time. Dastan Satpayev, the 17-year-old who has arrived from Kazakhstani side Kairat this summer, also played the second 45 minutes.

While Chelsea are still waiting for several stars to return from the World Cup and their subsequent breaks,

Cole Palmer

and Joao Pedro have been among those at Cobham.

Xabi Alonso oversaw his first-ever Chelsea win with a pre-season closed-door secret friendly

Neither Chelsea nor Crawley commented about their secret friendly when asked.

Emegha, 23, arrived from BlueCo sister side Strasbourg on a pre-agreement this summer and so, unofficially, this would represent his first goal for Chelsea.

Gittens, 21, missed the second half of last season from January onward due to a hamstring injury. Delap, 23, is keen to have another campaign to prove himself at Chelsea after his struggles since signing from Ipswich Town.

Chelsea have another behind-closed-doors friendly scheduled for this Thursday versus League One club Bromley.

After that, they will fly to Sydney to begin their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia. It is believed the full travelling squad has yet to be finalised with some players – including among the younger contingent from the academy – weighing up loan options.

While abroad, Chelsea will head from Sydney (for friendlies versus Western Sydney Wanderers, July 28 and Tottenham Hotspur, August 1) to Hong Kong (Juventus, August 5) to Jakarta (AC Milan, August 8) to Malaysia (Johor Darul Ta’zim, August 9).

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