Chelsea man to stop taking the knee as anti-racial gesture

After the premier league’s 100-days break in June 2020 due to the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic, players began taking the knee to express their support for the Black Lives Matter campaign. Before the beginning of this season, players of the 20 premier league club decided to continue kneeling down to show that solidarity in the fight against all form of racism especially in football.

Recall that Crystal Palace star Wilfred Zahais the first premier league player to stop knelling and he expressed his view earlier this year by saying that kneeling down is “degrading”. He went further to urge that “players should stand tall”

Now, another premier league star has decided joined Wilfred Zahato stop talking the knee before the commencement of premier league matches. Chelsea’s defender Marcos Alonso has expressed his view on the anti-racial gesture as he thinks its no longer an efficient way to display solidarity against racism. Marcos Alonso has declared his preference for standing up and pointing at the No-To-Racism badge in his jersey rather than taking a knee before the match because he thinks taking a knee is “losing a bit of strength”

"I am fully against racism and I'm against every type of discrimination," said Alonso.

"I just prefer to put my finger to the badge where it says No To Racism, like they do in some other sports and football in other countries.

"I prefer to do it this way and, of course, to say very clearly that I am against racism and I respect everybody."

"So I just prefer to do it this way and to show I am fully supportive of fighting against racism.

"For now, I prefer to point to the sleeve and that's what I will do."

Meanwhile, Marcos Alonso also made positive impact on Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday, showing a very strong team with a very good manager

After Thomas Tuchel introduced N’golo Kante in the second half of the game, the blues sealed the midfield giving Marcos Alonso chances of pushing forward. With this, Chelsea became very strong all-round the pitch scoring 3 goals before the end of the match.

With just 5 matches in the new season, Chelsea have already played against Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham and has gotten seven points from those matches.

Alan Shearer, an English football pundit and retired footballer has shared his view about the performance of Chelsea, he said “ Before a ball was kicked in this campaign I picked Chelsea to be champions because I thought Romelu Lukaku would make the difference in attack after they missed too many chances last season.

Lukaku is not the only reason they are so formidable - they won the Champions League in May without him - but his arrival means they don't have a weak link in their team, and they have such strength in depth too.

Being able to bring a player as good as Kante off the bench against Spurs was another example of that. Their manager is not only able to see where things are not working in a game, but he has the quality on the bench to change things around and make a difference.

Chelsea's next test is against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but that won't faze them.

They beat City three times under Tuchel last season, including in the Champions League final. He will be ready for Pep Guardiola again, I'm sure”.

However, Chelsea have won each of their last six away league London derbies – that is, their longest such streak in their league history. Also, Tottenham have lost consecutive Premier League games without scoring a goal for the first time since February 2021.