The Blues travelled across the capital for a London derby away at title holders Arsenal in our third Premier League fixture under Alonso’s leadership.

Morgan Rogers gave us an early lead in a good start at the Emirates Stadium, but the Gunners came back to win 2-1, even if we went close to further goals when Pedro Neto hit the post and Estevao Willian had a late shot tipped over the bar.

The Chelsea manager felt we showed we are on the right track by taking the game to last season’s champions and pushing them all the way in their stadium, even if there are still areas where improvement is needed.

‘I want to compete in the best possible way to win,’ explained Alonso after the final whistle at the Emirates Stadium.

‘Yesterday, we didn’t want to from the first minute sit deep and to wait and to make it a long game. We wanted to be active. We wanted to be protagonists in the pressing – sometimes to go higher, sometimes lower – to have good possession.

‘We did many things right, other things we need to make better. We need to learn from them, because this is the top level and when we have to play at the top level we want to be as efficient and as accurate in all the phases of the game as possible.

‘But this is where we are. This is game three for us in this new start, this new phase for Chelsea, but I am happy with the spirit and attitude of the players. They have given everything, they have tried and they fought really hard.’

As Alonso points out, it is still early days for the Blues under our Spanish manager, meaning every game is an opportunity to continue learning and improving.

‘Yesterday’s game, we will take many things for the next one, as we have done so far after Fulham, after Brighton, after Luton. We want to squeeze everything from each game to make things better, when we win and when we lose as well.

‘That is the process of where we are, where we want to build strong principles and strong ideas for our game, little by little, to win games and to compete in the best possible way.’