Chelsea ended Sunday's 2-1 defeat by champions Arsenal with two players who began their careers as right-backs alongside each other in midfield. After spending £349m during the summer transfer window, how did they reach that point? It was Reece James, who began his career as a right-back, who failed to track captain Martin Odegaard as he scored Arsenal's winner at Emirates Stadium.
In the build-up to his first defeat as Chelsea manager, Xabi Alonso said he believes James can become one of the best midfielders in the world. James performed well otherwise and spent almost half of last season playing in midfield. But there are legitimate questions about Chelsea's depth in that area after Malo Gusto replaced midfielder Romeo Lavia in the second half.
It was lax marking that led to Odegaard's winner, while a lack of creativity from the bench left Chelsea short as Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta's substitutes ultimately helped guide the hosts to victory. "Chelsea don't have European football this season so they're playing less games and can concentrate on the Premier League. But the worry is you're finishing a game against the champions, and you've got two right-backs in midfield," Ashley Young told BBC Sport.
"You look at Lavia, who was injured a lot last season. The front line are going to send fear throughout the league but behind that you see the midfield and they're playing right-backs there. "Teams will be seeing the game today, seeing that Chelsea will sit in there and get men behind the ball, but there's still spaces through the lines, and Arsenal found that out.
"Chelsea are giving up a lot of possession and they're playing counter-attacking football. Today there was probably only once with [Pedro] Neto down the right side when they capitalised on the counter." The primary issue is the absence of midfielder Moises Caicedo. The Ecuador international is out with an unspecified injury for an unknown period after breaking down just 11 minutes into a substitute appearance against Brighton last week.
It has left Alonso in almost uncharted territory for a Chelsea boss. Aside from suspensions, Caicedo had missed only two matches during the previous three seasons, through a knock and illness. Asked about Caicedo, Alonso said: "Not longer term, but it is about assessing the risk.
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