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Preview for Chelsea v Leeds

Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso is satisfied with the progress made at Stamford Bridge since his arrival over the summer.

Alonso was drafted in after a turbulent 12 months at the club that saw both Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior receive the sack. And he has made a promising start with two wins to start the season followed by a battling defeat to champions Arsenal at the Emirates.

Chelsea take on old rivals Leeds in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night and Alonso is eager for his side to maintain their upward trajectory.

“We know that it’s going to be a long process, but you need to be assessing how are things going,” he said. “And so far, I think that we can be happy, but we need to be self-demanding as well, that we can do better. But there are other parts that we can’t afford to have so much time, that we need to improve.

“For sure, we want to have as many clean sheets as quickly as possible. And that’s going to be an issue for every game, knowing that the competition is hard. But we are taking steps, but there are still lots of steps to be taken.”

Leeds are unbeaten after three games and also reached the third round of this competition with an impressive victory at Nottingham Forest.

Former Real Madrid boss Alonso is expecting a tough evening against Daniel Farke’s men.

He added: “We want to compete because that’s the best way to win games. You need to adapt to compete and it comes in two ways. It comes in the football way and it comes in the spirit and mentality side and in everything we can get better. We will need that tomorrow night against Leeds? Tomorrow we are expecting a very, very intense game, very tough, very many situations of duels, but we need to try to cope with that, find solutions and know that this is going to be an important game.”

Leeds have not won a major domestic trophy since 1992 and Farke is eager to edge closer to a trip to Wembley.

He said: “We try to win it. That is a topic, the quickest way to Europe and to some glory.

“Of course, knowing that the Premier League always will have the priority and to make sure that we are as successful as possible there, and especially to reach our first goal, to establish ourselves on this level.

“We are not the favourites to win the EFL Cup. We know this also [will be a] challenging, difficult game. But of course we travel to London in order to go through in the next round without doing anything stupid.

“At this stage of the campaign, of course, you also have to rotate a bit more and integrate a few new players.

“That is also important but, nevertheless, we want to be at our best and if possible we also want to go through into the next round.”

Team News for Chelsea v Leeds

Moises Caicedo remains out after lasting just 14 minutes on his return against Brighton before being withdrawn. Jordan Henderson is still waiting for the green light to make his Chelsea debut following the wrist injury he suffered at the World Cup, while Marco Palestra remains sidelined.

Leeds will be without Ilian Gruev, Joe Rodon and Mateo Joseph, all ruled out through injury. Farke’s side have had little time to prepare, this trip to London arriving just four days after a long away day at Brighton.

Expected line-ups for Chelsea v Leeds

Chelsea:Penders; Fofana, Lacroix, Colwill; Neto, Barco, Lavia, Chavarria; Rogers, Palmer; Welbeck

Leeds:Trafford; Justin, Elvedi, Muharemovic; Bogle, Ampadu, Tanaka, Gudmundsson; Stach, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin

Recent results and stats for Chelsea v Leeds

• This is the third time in four seasons Chelsea have drawn Leeds United in a cup competition, with the previous two meetings coming in the FA Cup.
• The sides have faced each other in 10 domestic cup ties with Chelsea progressing every time: three in the League Cup in 1969, 2001 and 2012, and seven in the FA Cup.
• Chelsea are unbeaten at Stamford Bridge against Leeds United in nine games across all competitions, winning seven and drawing two.

Where to Watch Chelsea v Leeds: TV and online streams

The match kicks off at 8pm on Wednesday, September 9 and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Chelsea’s own Matchday Live service also carries minute-by-minute updates and live audio commentary from five minutes before kick-off, available via the Chelsea Official App and the club website’s Match Centre.

You can stream it via Sky Go.

Prediction for Chelsea v Leeds

A difficult game to predict given there will be several changes for both sides. But that could be where Chelsea’s squad depth comes to the fore.

Home advantage also sways us to fancy Chelsea, just…