Xabi Alonso experienced the most important win of his brief reign as Chelsea manager so far, but ended up blaming himself for it almost going wrong.For Chelsea to come from two goals down in the second half to beat Leeds United 6-3 in the Carabao Cup third round was significant for many reasons. For starters, there is so much positivity around Alonso’s appointment, but his popularity would have taken an early dent if he had overseen defeats to Arsenal and Leeds United — two of the club’s fiercest rivals — in the space of just four days.Chelsea have not made a habit of staging comebacks to win games too often in recent years, so to do it in such entertaining fashion is great for self-belief. You can add Cole Palmer and Danny Welbeck getting two goals each, Morgan Rogers’ remarkable quartet of assists and Valentin Barco’s first goal for the club to the big tick column.The most important factor of all is that Chelsea are still in the competition. They have not won a domestic cup since 2018 — losing seven Wembley final appearances in a row has not helped that statistic — so the Carabao Cup is earmarked as an important target.But staying in it is also vital for Alonso’s ability to give game time to his fringe squad members — he made nine changes to the starting line-up from the one that was beaten 2-1 by Arsenal on Sunday. Chelsea’s season is not even a month old, and yet you can already see a pecking order beginning to develop. There is a group of players you expect to feature regularly in the Premier League and those who will not.Chelsea’s win over Leeds left Xabi Alonso with plenty to ponder (Darren Walsh/Getty Images)The fourth-round tie will not be played until the week commencing October 26. This means there is a very good chance that some of the players who underwhelmed in the win over Leeds will not be in the first XI again for seven weeks. Granted, there is a three-week international break coming up as part of it, but that is a long time to wait.