LONDON -- Xabi Alonso hailed the performance of forward trio João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers and said they have the ability to "inspire" the rest of the team after they all scored in Chelsea's 3-2 win at Fulham on Monday evening in the Premier League.
Alonso said the win was a "good first step" in what was his first competitive match in charge of Chelsea. He unleashed his new-look front three and it paid dividends after just 31 seconds as Pedro scored Chelsea's opener.
Fulham then equalised from Josh King as he punished slack goalkeeping from Robert Sánchez, but Chelsea got the lead heading into the break thanks to Rogers scoring on his debut.
Chelsea then added a third soon after the break as Pedro teed up Palmer to make it 3-1, but Gonzalo García scored on his Fulham debut to make it 3-2. And post-match, Alonso was delighted with the performance of his front three.
"They are going to be a very important part of the team. To build a team with them, they need to take responsibility, and lead the rest, inspire the rest, if they do great, then others will follow," Alonso said.
"We need to reach them in the best possible situations -- the links to get them. I'm happy for the three of them. They play for the team, they score and it's important."
Palmer and Pedro both missed out on the World Cup having been left out of England and Brazil's squads respectively, while this was Rogers' debut after his £117m ($159.5 million) move from Aston Villa to Chelsea in the summer.
On Palmer, Alonso added: "I'm very happy for Cole. I have really enjoyed seeing him play with this dynamism, freedom and responsibility, helping the team, feeling important and we need that for the team. If he feels this way, we'll have a better Chelsea. I'm happy for him that he enjoyed this game."
Rogers said post-match on Sky Sports that Palmer is "ready to prove people wrong" after a tough 2025-26 campaign and hailed his friend's performance. "Everyone knows how good he is, obviously he's had a difficult year with injuries, you can see it in his eyes in pre-season," Rogers said. "He's ready this year, and he's ready to prove people wrong. We saw that on the pitch with our performance. He's the best player on the pitch by a mile. It's what he does."
But while there was plenty to be optimistic about, there were some defensive concerns for Chelsea. Sanchez was at fault for King's equaliser, while he also parried Timothy Castagne's shot into the path of Garcia for Fulham's second. But Alonso refrained from criticising his goalkeeper's performance.
"We talk about the team," Alonso said. "The first goal we can do better to defend and to avoid. It's part of the game; we have to accept it and learn from it. It's going to be a process, in all lines. We want to do better in everything, and the goal was to start good, and get a good start, relax and continue."
Enzo Fernández was named on the bench as doubts remain over his future. But he was given an encouraging reception from Chelsea's fans in the second half when he was brought on.
Alonso was asked about the Fernandez applause, and hearing his own name being sung by Chelsea's fans and said: "It's not a big deal. I'm happy to play our first official Premier League game, it felt great in this stadium with our fans and to celebrate with them. I had the feeling they were excited and hoping to see a good performance from the team, a team who would give everything to fight for it. It's important to create this bond."