It's been a mixed start for Xabi Alonso as Chelsea manager following his summer appointment.

Alonso has overseen 10 Premier League games, with Chelsea winning five, losing four and drawing the other.

After a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland earlier this month, Chelsea are currently in fifth place in the league heading into the November international break, a position they can build on as they edge towards the half-way point in the season.

Unfortunately for the Blues, they are out of the Carabao Cup following a penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool in the fourth round last month.

Chelsea are largely playing one game a week so far after failing to qualify for European football. Alonso has been taking both the positives and negatives this season, though the Spaniard is desperate to ensure that, come May, the Blues are in the European qualification spots, ideally for Champions League football.

The games awaiting Chelsea between now and the end of the year will really test Alonso's side. Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa are to come in December, and the Blues will be desperate to come out unscathed. 

They will need to be at their best, which will require their star players to be available. Joao Pedro is recovering from a thigh injury, while Reece James and Maxence Lacroix are expected to be sidelined until the New Year.

After the opening months of the season, former Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair has offered his verdict on Alonso's start and identified the area that, if they improve, will make them an even bigger threat to finish in the top positions.

Sinclair, speaking exclusively to Absolute Chelsea on behalf of Betano, said: "It's Xabi Alonso's first season managing in the Premier League. Obviously he knows the Premier League inside out as a player, but that's totally different to being a head coach and leading a team.

"When you go into a team that has been so inconsistent over the previous seasons, then it's always gonna be difficult to turn around straight away. But I do like his ideas. I do like the way that he wants to play.

"Obviously it's expansive, scoring goals, and I'm sure he's doing his work on trying to stop goals going in at the other end because if they can get that right, then obviously they'll be a threat for the top four, I believe."

Any team missing their star striker is weakened. That has been the case for Joao Pedro, who has already missed four of Chelsea's opening 10 league games this season. In his other six, he contributed five goals and three assists, showing exactly why he is the man to lead the attack.

It has seen Chelsea need to rely on Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, with Pedro Neto and Estevao Willian also proving influential when given the opportunity.

"I watched the game (vs Tottenham) that João Pedro missed when Xabi Alonso tried to play Cole Palmer and Rogers as almost like a front two, and it didn't work," Sinclair added.

"I could see what he was trying to do. He was trying to draw their players out by playing in the half spaces with those two a bit further forward. But, Chelsea need a target man and Joao Pedro's been brilliant when he has been playing.

"You can see the miss he is, and the problem we've got there is, as strong as Chelsea's squad is in other places, they haven't got a like-for-like replacement for Joao Pedro and it does cause a problem for the team. Alonso is relying on him being fit and ready."

When the Brazilian will return to selection remains unclear. He posted on Instagram and wrote 'day by day', offering hope that he could return before the end of the month, as fixtures against Leeds United and Nottingham Forest are ahead this month.