Xabi Alonso: Joao Pedro in Haaland's League
Xabi Alonso did not flinch. Asked if Joao Pedro belongs in the same conversation as Erling Haaland, the Chelsea manager went straight to the point.
“I would say yes.”
It was not a throwaway line. It came at the end of a month in which Joao Pedro, 24, has ripped into the new season, scoring twice, setting up two more in his first three games and walking away with the Premier League’s Player of the Month award on Friday. He edged out his own team-mate Cole Palmer, the previous Chelsea winner back in September 2024, to claim the prize for the first time.
For Alonso, though, this is not just about a hot streak. It is about status.
“If you count how many top strikers we have in the Premier League, I'm sure that Joao is there, Haaland for sure is there. So I would rate him that way,”
he said.
Those numbers back him up. Since arriving at Stamford Bridge last summer, Joao Pedro has become the first Chelsea No 9 since Diego Costa to smash through the 20-goal barrier in a single season. Across 57 matches for the club, he has 25 goals and 11 assists, a return that persuaded Chelsea to move quickly last month and lock him down on a new deal running to 2034, along with the symbolic handing over of the number nine shirt.
Haaland, of course, remains the Premier League’s benchmark finisher. The Manchester City striker took last season’s Golden Boot with 27 league goals and has 42 goals and nine assists in his last 57 outings for City. He is a specialist, a penalty-box predator who lives on the shoulder of the last defender and punishes the smallest lapse.
Joao Pedro is a different animal.
Where Haaland works almost exclusively as a centre-forward, the Brazilian has wandered across the attacking map. He has played as a midfielder, as a No 10, as a winger, and now as a central striker who drops, drifts and links. His game is built on variety as much as volume.
That is where Alonso sees another comparison, one drawn from his own glittering past.
“In many things he reminds me of Benzema, because he is good in the box, he is good out of the box, he is good coming to his left side, he is good with the head, he is very complete, he is intelligent,”
said the Spaniard, who shared a pitch with Karim Benzema 195 times at Real Madrid. “So yes, he is still young, still things to develop, but many, many absolutely outstanding qualities that he has.”
Coming from Alonso, that carries weight. Benzema, now 38 and a free agent, left his own trail of numbers across Europe and the Middle East: 523 goals in 994 appearances for France, Lyon, Real Madrid and Saudi Arabian sides Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal. To mention Joao Pedro in that company is to set the bar high, not just for goals but for all-round craft.
The Brazilian’s rise has not been without friction. He was a surprise omission from Brazil’s squad for this summer’s World Cup, a decision taken by national team coach Carlo Ancelotti, another of Alonso’s former mentors at Real Madrid. For a forward in form, it cut deep.
“It was painful for him, but that is in the past,”
Alonso said. He rejected the idea that the snub was the spark for this season’s form. “He had enough motivation. He already had enough within him, so I didn't need to go there. We are now focused on what he is doing well and what he can do better.”
The response has been emphatic. Brazil have recalled Joao Pedro for September’s international fixtures against New Zealand and India, recognition that his club form is impossible to ignore. At Chelsea, his influence stretches beyond goals and assists.
“He has been outstanding. Not just in football terms, but in his personality, his maturity and his desire,”
Alonso added. “He has a very clear goal this season, which is to have a great campaign and score a lot of goals.”
Chelsea have seen great No 9s come and go, from Costa’s snarling edge to the more fleeting experiments that followed. Joao Pedro is carving out something different: a modern centre-forward with Benzema’s brain and Haaland’s company on the Premier League’s top shelf.
The contract is signed, the shirt is his, the stage is set. Now the question is simple: how far can he push those comparisons before they stop sounding bold and start sounding obvious?
