Former Chelsea full-back Mario Melchiot believes Ben Chilwell's position at the club is 'questionable'.
Chilwell has only been at Stamford Bridge since the summer when he arrived on a £50million deal from Leicester City, and he has impressed for the most part.
But Thomas Tuchel's arrival following the sacking of Frank Lampard has seen Marcos Alonso brought back into the starting XI, or at least the last two games, with the Spaniard suiting the wing-back role.
Alonso has impressed, too, but that could be a real problem for Chilwell, according to former Blues defender Melchiot, who admits the new system is better suited to Alonso.
“One manager wants you for a particular system so it was more like a 4-3-3, but now the system has changed and made it really questionable for Chilwell," Melchiot told TalkSport.
“It doesn’t mean he’s not a good player; I always admired him because I like him as a player, but Alonso knows this way of playing.
“Alonso has grabbed the opportunity, scored a goal, made a difference in the team and looks really comfortable. He looks very good compared to a player that hasn’t played for so long. Look how fit he is and how he is playing.
“He looks comfortable on the ball. We all know he’s good, he does his job and that is why he’s playing.”
Melchiot also spoke about Chelsea's revival under Tuchel, the Blues now on a run of three unbeaten having won their last two, and Dutchman believes his old club can now chase down a top four spot, currently four points behind Liverpool in fourth.
“Oh yeah, by far they can get that," he added. "This is only the first test he [Tuchel] had, so we have to realistic. Do they have the chance? Yeah.
“I always felt Chelsea had to aim for the Champions League spots and go for it. The only thing now is how are they going to perform in the next game. This was his first biggest test.
“If you saw Tuchel [against Tottenham], it was the first time he emotionally reacted in a different way than when we saw before.
“He knows there is no waiting time. The way he delivered the team to make them win, this win was way bigger than we thought it would be for him.”
