5 Things we learned from Chelsea’s thrilling win over Brighton
It’s certainly not going be boring at Stamford Bridge this season. Xabi Alonso has got this team firing on all cylinders at the start of the season and Chelsea got off to the perfect start just four minutes in as a Pedro Neto corner was flicked on by Joao Pedro and cleared off the line by Mats Wieffer but straight to Romeo Lavia who was on hand to put Chelsea 1-0 in the opening minutes of the game, it didn’t take long for Chelsea to double their lead just ten minutes later as Joao Pedro flicked the ball onto Morgan Rogers who surged towards the box and fired the ball across the box for Pedro Neto to latch on to and put Chelsea 2-0 up. Whilst Brighton dominated possession Chelsea looked more dangerous on the counter and in the 32nd minute did go 3-0 after a lung busting run from Jorrel Hato into the Brighton half led to 2 v 2 with the Dutchman finding Joao Pedro in the box who fired the ball past Verbruggen to finish the game in the first half for Chelsea, or so they thought as just three minutes later Brighton got one back as Yalcouye played a ball through to Kostoulas who’s shot was saved but the ball fell back to Yalcouye who’s volley lasered off the post and in to give Brighton hope heading into the second half. Brighton looked the more dangerous team at the start of the half and did get another one back as Pascal Gross’ cross was inadvertently deflected into his own net by Joao Pedro to make it 3-2 with thirty minutes left to play, it was Chelsea to strike next though in the 74th minute as some brilliant hold-play from Joao Pedro gave Cole Palmer space to run into and the Englishman ran towards the edge of the box before curling a lovely strike past Verbruggen to give Chelsea a cushion on their lead again. Brighton did get another back through a Pascal Gross header but it was literally the last action of the game as the referee blew full-time right after to bring an end to a very entertaining game of football.
I don’t really know what Xabi Alonso will make of that game? On the one hand going forward in transition Chelsea looked electric once again but I don’t think Alonso will be overly pleased with his team having just 26% possession over the 90 minutes, the front three of Palmer, Rogers and Pedro is by far the best thing about this Chelsea side at the minute and yet again all three of them contributed to goals which I think will be a theme going forward this season. Then you have the defence which has holes all over it but when you consider that Colwill is coming back from an ACL injury last season, Lacroix has just joined the club and Fofana has always looked shaky at the back I can understand why Chelsea conceding a boat load of goals. I thought Jorrel Hato and Pedro Neto played well as wing-backs today and I think the Portugese has found his perfect position in this Alonso system as a right wing-back, we saw for his goal today the electric pace he has and the finish to match which was probably Chelsea’s best goal today. The midfield is becoming an issue as well with Lavia and Gusto only having 54 touches between them which was a huge part of why Brighton had so much possession, for context Pascal Gross by himself had 78 touches as Brighton controlled the majority of the game. Overall Xabi Alonso will obviously be pleased with the result but there are definitely a few problems he needs to iron out over the next few weeks.
First half performance cost Brighton any chance of getting something from the game. Going into this game Hurzeler would have confident of getting something after battering Aston Villa last week but he was missing some big players like Hinshelwood, Rutter, Minteh, Mitoma etc who all probably would have started the game, whilst they dominated possession in the first half they rarely looked like scoring and were getting torn apart on the counter which led to the three goals Chelsea scored in the first half. The goal right before half-time was brilliantly taken by Yalcouye who made his debut today and was arguably Brighton’s best player, the defending for some of the goals was so poor by the likes of Mats Wieffer who clearly isn’t a right-back getting burned by Hato for Joao Pedro’s goal and heading the ball straight to Lavia for the opener. They did put Chelsea under pressure following a pretty fortunate second goal but that lack of real quality in the attack cost them any of chance an equaliser before Cole Palmer finished the game, there’s not much you can do when you’re missing so many players but there’s definitely positives to take for Brighton and Hurzeler today.
Is this Chelsea team capable of fighting for the title? I think we’ll probably get our answer to this question next week when Chelsea play Arsenal at the Emirates but you can’t help but feel like if Alonso can sort out the defence then Chelsea will be in and around it this season, the midfield is clearly another problem with Moises Caicedo going off injured after being subbed on in the second half but that attack in my opinion is the best in the league. If they can get a quality midfielder through the door to replace Enzo Fernandez and can get Caicedo back fit I think the midfield will be fine but it is that defence that is not at title winning form currently, Emi Martinez is a big signing in the net and despite conceding three today he will undoubtedly be a huge upgrade on Rob Sanchez long-term. With only the Premier League to focus on this season I can’t see any reason why Chelsea can’t at least try to mount a title challenge this year with Arsenal? I can’t wait for that game at the Emirates next week were Alonso can send a real statement to the league, should be a cracker.
Any more business to do before the window closes? With the transfer window closing on Tuesday there’s not much time left to do any business but I’d imagine with Enzo Fernandez looking likely to leave Chelsea have to bring in another midfielder and it looks like it could be Lamine Camara from AS Monaco, he’s a player I don’t know an awful lot about but I can’t see him being a player tat has the same qualities of Enzo Fernandez. The one player that Chelsea should definitely be going for is Manu Kone from Roma who did look like leaving earlier on in the window but I can’t see Roma selling so close to the deadline, what a signing that would be though. For Brighton I think they quite clearly need another striker as I don’t think Kostoulas is ready yet and Promise David is miles off being a Premier League attacker, just imagine if Danny Welbeck was playing for Brighton today. There’s no way that game ends 4-3, elsewhere I do think they could do with a midfielder as well with Boscagli playing out of position today but once they get some players back from injury they might be okay in there. One things for sure and that’s that we will undoubtedly see some panic buys over the next two days, I wonder who they will be?