Three Chelsea debutants pass auditions to push case for heightened roles against Brighton

Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has been presented with a welcome selection dilemma for first home Premier League match

After Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix led the charge against Fulham, it was the turn of Valentin Barco, Mike Penders and Danny Welbeck against Luton Town on Thursday night to be handed starts on their Chelsea debuts.

And all five passed those tests, most with flying colours. The latest exhibition of Chelsea first-timers might have twisted their manager’s arm in time for them to be given heightened roles in this afternoon’s testing home match against top-of-the-table (after only one game) Brighton.

Against Luton, Mike Penders admittedly had a quiet debut, keeping a no-doubt cherished clean sheet but with barely anything to do all evening besides distributing the ball.

But with Chelsea agreeing to sign Emi Martinez for £7.5million and Robert Sanchez axed as No1, Penders will feel he is well placed to preserve his starting berth in goal for the visit of the Seagulls. He would be busier against them than he was against Jack Wilshere’s Luton, of that there is no doubt.

Danny Welbeck is well aware of what it is like to be benched in favour of Joao Pedro. The pair were competing strikers at Watford, then Brighton, and now at Chelsea.

Welbeck will be like everyone else in expecting Xabi Alonso to pick the Brazilian to start at Stamford Bridge, and yet Welbeck’s competent debut was exactly the sort of performance he was brought in to produce and may earn him more minutes than if things had not started quite so handsomely.

As it happened, Welbeck, 35, demonstrated his experience no end, guiding Chelsea players through the Luton match and getting up and running for his new club when he headed in from a Malo Gusto cross.

Though Chelsea were penalised momentarily under the new Time-Limited Substitution Protocol for Welbeck’s slow exit, this was a fast start. Alonso will hope he can build some momentum now and keep it up. Welbeck, himself, will simply hope for a chance to impress against his former team, whether the game has been won already by his friend Joao Pedro or whether Chelsea are in need of a goal. He had a a very enviable scoring record for Brighton against Chelsea.

“I am aware,” Alonso said, “and I am happy he is with us.”

Dream debut: Danny Welbeck

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The Chelsea manager will have felt similarly fortunate about having the pint-sized Barco in his ranks, after watching his influence in the middle of the park while a certain other Argentinian midfielder sat the game out.

Barco is short and slim but masked those facts with aplomb at Stamford Bridge, partnering Reece James in a double-pivot with distinction and striking a crisp balance between composure in possession and a sharpness when harrying opponents out of possession.

The most encouraging example of the latter led directly to Chelsea’s second goal and earned the 22-year-old high-fives from both Pedro Neto and Palmer. Barco nibbled at the feet of Luton’s Liam Walsh, robbed him of the ball by sheer determination, and fed Palmer, who fed Estevao, who forced Hakeem Odoffin into an own goal that won Chelsea the game.

Against Brighton, whose midfield is always nicely balanced and occupies plenty of the possession, that same tenacity will be of even greater importance. Perhaps Alonso is minded to start Barco, or at least consider him among his options from the bench. Thursday night’s outing was certainly a well-timed and well-acted audition.

Willie Isa, the former New Zealand rugby player, is Chelsea’s player support and development officer, and could be seen sharing a laugh and a joke with Barco at full-time after the Luton match.

There were signs there of rapport being built between one member of the backroom staff and a new member of the squad. Something similar is surely happening with Alonso, too. As Premier League matters return, Penders, Welbeck and Barco have pushed their cases.