Xabi Alonso has admitted he made a 'mistake' with Moises Caicedo after Chelsea's 2-1 Premier League defeat to Arsenal on Sunday. The influential midfielder was ruled out of the clash at the Emirates Stadium after suffering a setback in his return from injury.
Caicedo's return cut short
Caicedo missed Chelsea's Premier League opener against Fulham and was also left out of the Carabao Cup win over Luton Town. He made his first appearance of the season in Chelsea's thrilling win over Brighton last weekend, coming on in the 68th minute to replace Pedro Neto.
However, Caicedo lasted just 14 minutes before hobbling off and being replaced by summer signing Valentin Barco. The latest setback ruled him out of the huge clash against Arsenal, which Alonso's side lost 2-1.
Alonso's admission
Alonso insisted Caicedo does not have a 'long term' injury but admitted it was a mistake to bring him back 'too early'.
'It is not longer term but it's about assessing the risk,' Alonso said when asked for an update on the midfielder after the defeat. 'Probably, last week, we took him too early and I don't want to make the same mistake again.'
'It's easy after defeats to talk about the players that you are missing. I'm not going to go there, I am happy with the players that we have.'
'For sure all the managers need to deal with injuries, with suspensions. To have all the players available for all the games is impossible. But we need [Caicedo and Colwill] because they are top players and with them we are a better team.'
Defeat analysis
Discussing the defeat more generally, Alonso said: 'It was a game with different stages of momentum. We started the game well, scoring first, and the next 15 minutes they were really pushing us hard. We were defending low, struggling to have a little bit more of the ball to play a little bit more on the pitch. So those 15 minutes were hard and we had to suffer. Once we conceded the goal for 1-1 the game came back to an even level, from them, from us. We had a couple of good chances before the end of the first half, but at half-time we spoke. It was a very close game, very intense.'
'For sure, the second goal, we could've done a little bit better. It's a part of the game you need to accept because they are a top side and they push you to the limits. They overload a lot on the left side with many players and after that got the goal with Odegaard. But after that we have kept going and the team showed really good desire and good spirit to fight until the end. We were close with the chance from Este. So it's a defeat, we are disappointed, it needs to hurt, but it needs to hurt in a positive way because it's just game three. There are still many games to play and we knew it was going to be a very intense game today.'
