Chelsea welcome newly-promoted Hull City to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon, one week after their 2-1 loss to Premier League champions Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Sitting fourth in the table and three points behind perfect duo Arsenal and Manchester City, a win against the Tigers is imperative.
However, a win may not be so simple as Hull are remarkably the only team across the top-four tiers of English football who are yet to concede a single league goal.
Hull deserve to be where they are
Seeking his third league win of the campaign, Alonso spoke on Hull's incredible form and was asked if this weekend's rivals deserve to ahead of them.
"Why not? They deserve to be where they are. They have played against United, Coventry and Villa, and they've done it really well. They've built a clear idea of what they want, how they want to compete. The mentality, they want to fight with everything.
"We go into tomorrow's game with the same respect as we did vs Arsenal. They will be hard to beat. They have the belief; the coach is doing a great job. It will be hard."
Caicedo out as Neto pens a new deal
After confirming Jordan Henderson, Moises Caicedo, Marco Palestra and Emmanuel Emegha are all ruled out, Alonso moved on to Pedro Neto who penned a new deal until 2032 today.
"For me, he is a winger. You can call him a winger or wing-back because he has many qualities. He can play on the last line and defend on the first line. He has this capacity to do many things. He is good in one on ones, he is scoring goals and has a fantastic work rate. He connects very well with players around him.
"I knew him very well from watching many Chelsea games and with him you know he is going to compete. You want this guy in your team. I am very happy with Pedro and the work he is doing."