Size, it seems, matters to Chelsea and the club have made a deliberate effort to get bigger and busier this season in an effort to stop being beaten up.

In the land of the Premier League giants, Chelsea have been on the small side in recent seasons. But they are no longer being looked down upon and are finally showing signs of being capable of going toe-to-toe physically with opponents.

Sunday’s opponents Sunderland ran Chelsea off the park twice last season. Only once, in the 36th Premier League game of the campaign against Liverpool, did Chelsea cover more distance than their opposition.

It was an embarrassing and costly problem for Chelsea, who lost almost every battle they stepped into, and one the club recognised they had to put right.

While much of the focus on the summer recruitment has been about the age of some of Chelsea’s signings, the bigger issue internally was to make the squad more robust and ready to go the distance.

Of the 10 summer arrivals who are part of Xabi Alonso’s first-team squad, seven of them measured over 1.8 metres (5ft 11in) and signings such as Morgan Rogers, Marco Palestra, Jordan Henderson and Maxence Lacroix have added much-needed athletic power.

Rogers has played more minutes (996) than any other Chelsea player this season, having played 71 games for Aston Villa and England last term, which was the most of any player in Europe’s top five leagues.

The 3-0 defeat by Brentford pointed to old problems, as Chelsea were outrun and outfought. But Alonso’s team proved they do not want to be a soft touch again in the victory over Everton.

Alonso was challenged on Chelsea’s unwanted record of being beaten up before the Everton game and asked whether it was about time the team proved they were no pushovers.

“Absolutely, it’s a challenge for us to win one of these games,” said Alonso. “But all the games for me are tough. Bournemouth were tough and we could win the game. And each one is different, difficult. And away, even more difficult. That’s why we know we need to do many, many things right football-wise, competitive-wise, in terms of fights, duels, playing well with the ball. It will be very demanding, and it’s going to be challenging, and for sure we know we are aware of that.”

Chelsea outran Everton in a 2-0 win at the Hill Dickinson that owed as much to guts, determination and fighting spirit as it did to tactics, invention and ability.

In their nine league games so far, Chelsea have outrun their opponents on five occasions which is already a huge improvement on last season and suggests that the team are becoming more robust.

Chelsea have completed more sprints than their opponents on seven occasions and the team’s sprint distance and high-intensity distance have each increased by three per cent. The average time taken to accelerate to sprint speed from static has improved by four per cent from last season.

The Chelsea team that started the final game of last season at Sunderland measured in at an average of 1.82 metres (5ft 11½in) comparison with the one that started this campaign at Fulham that averaged 1.86 metres (6ft 1in).

Of the comings and goings during the summer, five signings are taller than the players they have replaced. And even accounting for the relatively pint-sized trio of Pep Chavarría, Geovany Quenda and Valentín Barco, the average height of Chelsea’s summer signings was 1.84 metres. What Barco, Quenda and Chavarría lack in height they make up for in energy and industry.

Chelsea’s added height has so far had mixed results on set-pieces. Alonso’s team have scored six set-piece goals this season, which has only been bettered by Brighton (seven). But they have also conceded six goals from set-pieces, which is currently the worst record in the league.