Chelsea was lucky to escape the south coast with a 3-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion Friday evening.
Kaoru Mitoma opened the hosts spectacularly before a scouring of Yankuba Minteh on each side of the interval sealed the three points, but Brighton could have easily twisted the knife even deeper in this side of Chelsea centered on sweet.
Visitors outside spells by Enzo Maresca have not been beating the English opposition far from Stamford Bridge for more than two months and have only won two of their last nine first League games in any place.
How the game went
Perhaps given the proximity of the previous meeting between the two parties, Maresca tried to catch Fabian Hurzeler to the goalkeeper with a reworked front line. Chelsea could not take advantage of the early confusion which briefly darken the Seagulls, which quickly settled in a 5-4-1 training in the ball to neutralize their visitors.
Like last week’s cup tie, Friday’s competition settled in a model on each side in turn to try to play the high press deployed by the other.
Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen broke this PRIM passage sequence with a fizard shift little before the brand half an hour. Kaoru Mitoma had Trevoh Chalobah breathing in an ear but still managed to tear the ball from the icy night air with an amazing grace. The Japanese international needed two other products to prepare for a net shot in the lower corner of the edge of the box.
The technical complexity of Mitoma’s magic moment was written on the faces of his teammates, who were swept in an exhilarating mixture of shock and fear. Danny Welbeck was not the only one to describe it as a “Wow moment”.
Enzo Fernandez had the ball at the back of Brighton’s net before the interval, but was quickly penalized for a flagrant push on Joel Veltman. In a few seconds, the Seagulls celebrated again.
Carlos Baleba jumped on a loose authorization and an explosion in the disclosure of the interaction between Welbeck and Georginio Rutter directed the ball in the wake of Minteh inside the penalty box. A first touch left Marc Cucurella in a tired heap before Brighton forward did a 2-0 lead.
Brighton de Chelsea’s former left back was put through another spin cycle by the same opponent in the second period. After the visitors gave another high turnover, Minteh played a two with Welbeck around a Jadon Sancho and Cucurella fully inexpected before moving around the back with wild hair and drilling in his second goal of the evening.
Discover our notes as a brighton 3-0 Chelsea player here.
“A touch of the sky” 💫
Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton puts the hosts in front with a scandalous objective 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/q35ndqcj5r
– Sky Sports Premier League (@skysportspl) February 14, 2025
“Today, modern football is the way Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool are playing,” Manchester City manager spoke Pep Guardiola. The Seagulls have encapsulated the threat of their multiple facets approach against a Chelsea team led by the former Guardiola assistant, Maresca, who is stuck in the past.
Faced with the strict of man’s marking to Chelsea man, Verbruggen has chosen to go for a long time, trying Mitoma for one to one with Chalobah that he categorically took advantage of it.
It shouldn’t have been a big surprise for Chelsea. Guardiola abandoned his own short accumulation approach to hurt the blues with the long balls of the city less than three weeks ago. As Guardiola carefully summarized after this 3-1 victory: “When it is the man to man and they jump to the goalkeeper, you can do one two to two with the goalkeeper. But when it does not happen, you have to play [long ball to] Erling [Haaland]Because if you win this ball, it’s a chance. “”
“When you don’t have new appropriates, you need to use another type of nine [and] You have to change the way you play. We will find a solution, “said Maresca this week after being confirmed that Nicolas Jackson would be sidelined until April.
At least half of this statement was true. Chelsea changed his way of playing; Christopher Nkunku spent a large part of the first half to derive to the right wing while Cole Palmer and even Enzo Fernandez launched in turn in the middle. Unfortunately, it was not a successful solution.
After failing to force Verbruggen in a single backup, Maresca has torn his plans during the interval at halftime and sent Nkunku in a more orthodox role-center. It didn’t work either.
Familiarity generates contempt. Brighton unfortunately did not familiarize himself with Chelsea simply on this six -day double head, but the constant flow of staff – be it players, managers or technical directors – from the southern coast to west of London transformed this particular match into a modern rivalry.
Three members of Friday XI on Friday spent all time in Brighton before joining Chelsea – a decision for which the crowd was never tired of criticizing them. Moises Caicedo probably had the most impressive performance of any Chelsea player, but has always left the field in chorus of “What a Fasting of Money”.
Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella were not covered with glory, the two Minteh objectives achieving their holographic attempts to defend the left flank. Robert Sanchez, Chelsea’s demo goalkeeper who spent a decade in Brighton’s books, had to be grateful to hide on the bench under a snood that covered everything except his eyes.
Before Friday’s match, many have been made of Palmer’s failure to provide a single assist in the Premier League since December 4. However, during this period, the Talisman of Chelsea created 32 chances, most of all players in the five main leagues in Europe, by Opta. On the south coast of this week, Palmer did not create a single show for his teammates to be missed.
This is the first time that the ephemeral playmaker has drawn a creative white in a championship match since April 2024-however, that night against Everton, he himself scored four goals.
Palmer remains the most creative player in the division this season and is not the only Chelsea striker who has failed to perform at the Amex. While Noni Madueke was authorized to sulk and Pedro Neto can go around the last third aimless without many consequences, palmer out of the boil, except the announcement, the threat of attack of Chelsea.
