Xabi Alonso disappointed with Chelsea’s ‘competitive mentality’ in Brentford defeat

Xabi Alonso had talked about wanting a "boring" win for Chelsea , and for the first 45 minutes at the Brentford Community Stadium, it looked like we actually might be on our way. While the match was scoreless, we were far less chaotic than usual, winning the possession battle and largely controlling the flow of the game. Good chances were few and far between, for either side, but at the rate things had been going, we weren't going to need too many of them to nick a boring 1-0, or some such.

Unfortunately, the second 45 was a much different story, and not in a good way. Chelsea were "bullied" by the hosts, as Levi Colwill put it, while giving up three second-half goals in familiarly frustrating ways to head into the international break with plenty of questions and even more concerns for the season ahead.