Xabi Alonso has insisted Chelsea must tighten up defensively if his side are to challenge the Premier League’s top teams.Chelsea suffered their first defeat of the Alonso era after a 2-1 loss at Arsenal in the Premier League this weekend. The Blues took an early lead at the Emirates through Morgan Rogers, but goals from Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard turned the game around.Chelsea sit fourth in the table and have shown encouraging signs under Alonso, but the West Londoners have conceded seven times across their three Premier League games.Alonso has admitted his team will continue to get punished if they fail to record clean sheets. He said the club’s defensive record was something Chelsea must ‘address’.“My priority is to win games. Normally you win games when you don’t concede many goals,” he said to Sky Sports.“It’s something we need to address. We need to be tighter, more clinical, more balanced. But this takes time.“We wanted to compete, win here. We knew we were not that far but it went their way. We could have scored for 2-1 and you never know what happens.“The result is the result; I can’t argue against that. But we need to take it, not happy. It hurts. Disappointed for sure. This is our first defeat.“I want to compete in the best possible way to win. Today we didn’t want to sit deep from the first minute. We want to be active, protagonists in the pressing. We have done many right things. We need to make it better, learn from them.“When you play at the top level, we want to be as efficient in all the phases of the game. But this is where we are.“It’s game three or four for us in a new phase starting with Chelsea. I’m pleased with the spirit and attitude of the players. They worked hard.”Read – The Premier League clubs with the biggest net spend in summer 2026See Also – The biggest transfer fees ever paid by Premier League clubsFollow the Football Faithful on Social Media:Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTokThe post Alonso insists leaky Chelsea must tighten up defensively appeared first on The Football Faithful.