(Video): Xabi Alonso makes major PR error with “least important” claims after defeat

Xabi Alonso has made another PR gaffe with his comments about the EFL Cup last night after Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool.

Xabi Alonso frustrated Chelsea fans with some of his decisions in Saturday’s defeat against Spurs, and he’s compounded those frustrations with his comments after last night’s exit from the Carabao Cup.

The Blues manager called the EFL Cup “the least important competition” that his team were in, following their defeat on penalties. That has not gone down well with a lot of supporters.

You can see the new manager speaking in the clip embedded here:

Alonso puts his foot in it with frustrated Chelsea fans

We’re torn on this one. Clearly it’s a silly thing to say. Fans have travelled all the way to Liverpool to watch a pretty poor performance in a defeat, then you imply that the game wasn’t important. That’s clearly frustrating. He shouldn’t have said it, from a pure PR point of view.

On the other hand, he’s only saying the truth (it is a less important competition that the FA Cup or Premier League), and the team he put out was much stronger than one could have expected. He showed with his actions that it does matter, he shouldn’t have undone that with his words.

In other news…

Emmanuel Emegha got his first competitive minutes for Chelsea last night, and could play an important role on Saturday.

Alonso didn’t bring on Estevao for even a minute in the game, and had to answer questions about that afterwards.

Estevao didn’t get on the pitch during the game – but fans sang his name through the second half. It’s a strange situation.