The Blues must speedily turn attention to Sunday's trip to Leicester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup after crashing out of the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona midweek.
Chelsea will surrender their hold on the Premier League title in the coming weeks & are struggling to stay in the top-4, which Alonso has suggested is down to a lack of quality being brought in during the last 2 transfer windows.
Alonso told reporters after the defeat at Camp Nou: “At the moment, definitely the FA Cup and top four is what we have to go for. That's difficult. But it's what we have left and, at the minute, we can only fight for this and learn from the defeats that we've had this season.
“We have to start fighting in these last eight games because I think we deserve to play [in the Champions League] again next year. It's difficult, with so many games this year and we have not got the deepest squad.
“But if we play every game like we played against Barcelona, then yes [we would be in the top four], but it's not the case, so it's another thing we have to take into consideration. We must learn from this defeat and get stronger and improve.”
Chelsea have won only one of their last 5 matches in all competitions.
This article was most recently revised and updated 6 years ago