Josh Acheampong is starting for Chelsea again, and the defence is tighter
Josh Acheampong has started six of Chelsea's last nine matches in all competitions, and the 20-year-old centre-back is now a regular choice for manager Xabi Alonso. BBC Sport reports that he has played 581 minutes under Alonso. Only Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Levi Colwill and Maxence Lacroix have played more.
A centre-back is the defender who plays in the middle of the back line, and his job is to stop goals before they start. Acheampong has been at Chelsea since he was in the Under-8s age group. His contract runs until 2029.
The timing matters for a club that has struggled to keep the ball out of its net. Before the international break, Chelsea had conceded 12 league goals, more than any other side in the division. Since the break, they have conceded only one. Their first clean sheet of the season came in an away match at Everton, a game where the team did not let a goal in.
Acheampong is also a regular for England's Under-21 side. He has started eight of their past 10 matches.
Chelsea sources have repeatedly called him "untouchable", even as other clubs have shown interest in him. In June 2026, BBC Sport reported that Chelsea had rejected several approaches for him, and that Arsenal were monitoring the player. Earlier, in October 2025, BBC Sport reported that Ghana's national team wanted him for the following year's World Cup, when he was 19. He has chosen to stay with Chelsea, according to BBC Sport reporting from July 2025.
Chelsea have also been looking for defenders. They seriously explored moves for Dean Huijsen in summer 2025 and Jeremy Jacquet in January 2026. During the 2026 summer transfer window, the club had 10 senior centre-backs at one stage and ended the window with six. Chelsea also explored a loan move for Acheampong himself to Crystal Palace. Palace instead signed Axel Disasi on loan from Chelsea.
His path to this point has not been smooth. He did not sign a professional contract on his 17th birthday in 2023. Chelsea moved in January 2024 to secure his future. The Athletic reported in December 2024 that he had signed a new long-term deal, a four-and-a-half-year agreement that replaced a contract due to expire in June 2026. Back in October 2024, The Athletic had reported that he had been frozen out of the first team.
Two years on, the picture has changed. A young player who was once being pushed to the edge of the squad is now lining up in defence most weeks. For Chelsea fans, the question is whether that run of starts keeps going, and whether the goals stay out.
