Chelsea's Tactical Challenges: Two Right-Backs in Midfield
Chelsea spent £349m in the summer and still finished a crucial away game at Arsenal with two converted right-backs side by side in midfield. That image, as much as the 2-1 scoreline, told the story of their afternoon at Emirates Stadium.
Reece James, once again pushed into the middle, was at the heart of it all. Xabi Alonso had talked him up before kick-off, insisting James could become one of the best midfielders in the world. For long spells, the Chelsea captain backed that belief. He was tidy, combative, influential.
Then he lost Martin Odegaard.
As Arsenal’s captain ghosted into space and swept in the winner, James never tracked the run. One lapse, one finish, and the champions had turned the game. For Alonso, it was a brutal reminder of the fine margins in the position he’s trying to remodel.
Two right-backs, one big question
By the end, James was joined in midfield by Malo Gusto, another player who came through as a right-back. The change came when Romeo Lavia went off in the second half, leaving Chelsea to chase the champions with a patched-up engine room and little creativity on the bench.
Arsenal had the luxury of turning to impact substitutes. Mikel Arteta’s changes added energy and control; Chelsea’s underlined a problem.
Ashley Young, watching on for BBC Sport, did not bother dressing it up.
"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," he said.
He went further, pointing to the fragility behind Chelsea’s explosive front line.
"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."
That one moment from Neto summed up Chelsea’s attacking pattern: flashes of threat, not sustained pressure.
Life without Caicedo
Strip it all back and one issue sits at the centre of Chelsea’s tactical contortions: Moises Caicedo is missing.
The Ecuador midfielder, usually a constant, is sidelined with an unspecified injury after breaking down just 11 minutes into a substitute appearance against Brighton last week. Across the previous three seasons he had missed only two matches through a knock and illness. For a coach used to planning around his availability, Alonso is now in unfamiliar territory.
Asked about Caicedo, the Chelsea manager admitted he had already made one mistake.
"Not longer term, but it is about assessing the risk. Probably last week we brought him back too early and I don't want to make the same mistake again," he said.
The uncertainty lingers. It is still not clear whether Chelsea had any concerns over Caicedo’s fitness as they scrambled for midfielders on deadline day.
They thought they had one. Monaco abruptly pulled the plug on a £47m deal for Lamine Camara at the last moment, a decision that left Stamford Bridge officials furious. Earlier in the window, Chelsea had bids up to £64m rejected for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott. A move for France international Manu Kone was blocked when Roma head coach Gian Piero Gasperini refused to sanction his exit.
Inside the club, the line is that Camara was a market opportunity, not a necessity. Chelsea insist they are happy with their summer work and trust the options already in the building.
That stance looked bold, if not reckless, when they sold Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City for a joint British-record £125m on deadline day without bringing in a direct replacement. With Caicedo now out and no Enzo, Alonso is juggling pieces rather than rotating specialists.
Caicedo’s absence has also pushed Jordan Henderson further from the picture. The England international remains sidelined with a broken arm suffered in freak fashion – falling over an advertising hoarding while an unused substitute at the World Cup.
Overlooked options, exposed flaws
Valentin Barco arrived from Strasbourg in the summer as a natural midfielder. He has watched on as Gusto has been preferred in all three Premier League matches so far. The decision is a clear tactical choice, not an accident of circumstance.
With Gusto starting in midfield at Brighton, Chelsea had just 25.6% of the ball in a 4-3 win – their lowest possession figure since records began in 2003-04. They escaped with three points that day, leaning on their forwards and their counter-attack. Against Arsenal, that approach ran into a wall.
If everyone is fit, Alonso’s argument is that five midfielders are enough in a season without European football. On paper, that logic holds. On the pitch, the early weeks have told a different story.
Chelsea have leaned heavily on Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro to drag them upfield. Rogers, the club-record signing, struck again inside two minutes at Emirates, becoming the first Chelsea player to score or assist in each of the club's opening three Premier League games of a season since Eden Hazard in 2018-19. Palmer looks reborn. Joao Pedro is already prolific.
Yet while the front line sparkles, the back door keeps swinging open. Seven goals conceded in three matches prompted Alonso to admit: "we want to be tighter".
Encouragement and the cold reality
There was still a lot to like about Chelsea’s display in north London. Against a side that has become their benchmark, this was arguably one of their better performances in a run of 10 games without a win against Arsenal. They pressed, they broke, they threatened. For long stretches, the gap did not look like 33 points – the chasm between the sides at the end of last season, when Chelsea finished 10th.
Alonso’s verdict reflected that tension between progress and frustration.
"We came to win. We knew that we were not that far, but it went their way.
"It hurts, [we're] disappointed for sure. But this is the first defeat, this is going to be a long way and it doesn't have a big impact in our mood and in our mindset."
Arsenal remain the standard in London and one of the markers in the Premier League. Chelsea beat them to the signing of Rogers in the summer, a symbolic victory in the market, but on the pitch the champions still hold the edge where it matters.
Alonso has repeatedly described this summer as "phase one". Ten first-team signings underline the scale of the rebuild. Yet the failure to land a midfielder on deadline day hangs over the project, especially now Caicedo is out and James is being asked to play a role that still exposes his defensive instincts at key moments.
If Caicedo returns quickly and stabilises the centre of the pitch, Chelsea can argue this is a bump on a long road. If the midfield continues to creak, the decision to cash in on Fernandez without securing a replacement will not just be a talking point. It will be the first major test of whether this ambitious, expensive reset can survive its own risks before January arrives.
