Chelsea defeated Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park on Saturday to win their 2022-23 Premier League season opener, but the team's Spanish left-back Marcos Alonso sat on the bench for 90 minutes.

When asked about it at the post-game press conference, Chelsea's manager Thomas Tuchel said Alonso wants to leave the club and he has "agreed to his wish."

"He asked to leave and we agreed to his wish," Tuchel told reporters. "That is why it would not have made sense to put him on the pitch."

It has been six seasons since Alonso joined Chelsea from Fiorentina in 2016. He has made a lot of key contributions to the team by playing a solid role in the defensive line and has helped Chelsea win the Premier League, a FA Cup, a UEFA Champions League title, a UEFA Super Cup, a FIFA Club World Cup and a UEFA Europa League championship since then.

Barcelona targeted Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta during the summer transfer window. Chelsea already lost two defenders, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, both of whom departed on free transfers this summer. Rudiger went to Real Madrid and Christensen signed with Barcelona.

Chelsea managed to sign an extension with Azpilicueta until 2024 this week. The club also introduced Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli and Marc Cucurella from Brighton to make up for their losses on the backline.

Tuchel was not satisfied with Chelsea's performance on Saturday despite the win. "All three of our players in the back three are in their 30s and we struggled a bit in general at the end of the game," he said. "We need to improve our physical level and we are on it."

Everton lost both the game and their center-back Ben Godfrey, who suffered a brutal ankle injury after tackling Kai Havertz in the first half of the game. Godfrey was hospitalized, the club confirmed.

"It feels like it is a small fracture of his leg. We are assessing that. He will be out for a while, Yerry (Mina) has an ankle injury and could be out for a while," Everton's manager Frank Lampard said. "When it rains, it pours."