This image of Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso is messing with our eyes – is it real or CGI?

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide...

Marcos Alonso to Chelsea. £23m from Fiorentina. Despite the weighty transfer fee, it was hardly the most earth-shattering story of the summer transfer window. Not on the same day as Moussa Sissoko was ignoring Ronald Koeman's phonecalls. The former Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers player isn't exactly a high-profile name on these shores (despite his undoubted potential), and it's not even as if the Blues faced much competition from other clubs for his costly signature. But there is a very particular aspect of his last minute unveiling that has got us both questioning not only our own eyes, but the very parameters of our known reality. In fact it could easily turn out to be glitch-in-the-matrix shit. It's this image of Alonso proudly modelling his shiny new Stamford Bridge uniform. On first inspection it looks perfectly standard as far as announcement photos go. In fact it's a perfect example of how to present a new signing at your club. https://twitter.com/marcosalonso03/status/771063201375129605 But that's the problem - on closer inspection, it's all rather too perfect. In fact it's such a weirdly uniform and pixel-perfect image that, to our eyes at least, it looks more computer-generated than actual real life... Look at the arms, the hair, the skin-tone, the dead-eyed stare - it's like a regen image from a computer game - and possibly a slightly dated one at that. One that hasn't yet perfected the subtle imperfections of living, breathing reality. https://twitter.com/BeardedGenius/status/771081551027310592 We were confused enough to put it to our readers, and well, they seemed to agree that it looked very peculiar indeed. In fact, like us, they couldn't work out whether it was a pixellated fabrication or just a real-life photo... https://twitter.com/RidwanBakshi/status/771081797044232193 https://twitter.com/d1g2w3/status/771242807235182596 https://twitter.com/MeshakTaylor/status/771081871929335808 https://twitter.com/Chrisjameson9/status/771081931970740224 https://twitter.com/NLFG/status/771081922604916736 https://twitter.com/MJBuzzi/status/771081699690221569 https://twitter.com/SeanKDLA/status/771083223464042497 https://twitter.com/WhartoJohn/status/771082435350134784 https://twitter.com/fwayz/status/771082807548506114 https://twitter.com/Jonocardoso_10/status/771082115349934080 One person who responded, shared another image from another angle, which he cited as proof that the picture was real. But the slightly disconcerting fact remained that Alonso looked fake in that 'photo' too. Nice try, Ben (if that's your real name)... https://twitter.com/PageB95/status/771085732702199812 Now let us consider the possibilities: the photo is either real and just happens to look a bit weird; the image is fake and computer-generated, and Chelsea made up the whole thing; OR, both most worryingly and likely of all, Marcos Alonso has escaped from a computer game via some type portal and now an actual regen walks amongst us. May the Lord have mercy on all our souls.

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