Match Preview: Brighton v Chelsea
After nearly three months of gentle fixtures by Premier League standards, Brighton and Hove Albion face their toughest examination since travelling to Manchester City in September with Chelsea the visitors to the Amex.
The Blues currently sit fourth in the table but come into the game in excellent form having knocked off the the reigning champions a week ago.
They also have an outrageous record against Brighton with eight wins out of eight in the league and Chris Hughton’s side will have to be at their very best to take anything against Eden Hazard – who hopefully won’t be giving his shirt over to any home “fans” this time – and co.
Who are Chelsea?
Chelsea were formed in 1905 by a chap called Gus Mears who had bought Stamford Bridge athletics stadium in order to turn it into a football ground. After nearby Fulham turned down the offer to become tenants, Mears instead decided to found his only club which resulted in the birth of Chelsea. For the first 98 years of their existence, the Blues plodded along mainly in the top flight, picking up one league title, three FA Cups and two League Cups. Everything changed in 2003 when Russia oligarch Roman Abramovich purchased the club and began ploughing in some of the billions that he’d “acquired” after the fall of the Soviet Union. There hasn’t been a dull moment since as Chelsea have picked up 14 major trophies and rattled through 13 different managers.
What are they like now?
Despite winning trophy number 14 with the FA Cup at the end of last season, manager number 12 lost his job in the summer as Antonio Conte was sacked. His replacement was another Italian, Maurizio Sarri who had worked wonders at Napoli. Sarri brought with him his unique style of play, Sarribal, which involves playing out from the back, high pressing and quick, short passes. Before the start of the season, many pundits wondered aloud how long it would take Chelsea’s players to adapt to Sarriball but the results have been astonishing with the Blues well in contention in what is at this moment in time a wide open title race. They even managed to defeat Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City last weekend. Chelsea’s supporters showed their class in that game by racially abusing Raheem Sterling and they followed that up by singing antisemitic songs during Thursday’s 2-2 draw with MOL Vidi in Hungary. If they can get in some homophobia at the Amex, they’ll complete a discrimination hat-trick.
Which players should we be worried about?
Eden Hazard gave comfortably the best individual performance of any opposition player at the Amex last season when Chelsea won 4-0 and tore the Albion apart. He was simply unplayable that day and if he comes remotely close to those heights again, it could be a long afternoon. Jorginho followed Sarri from Napoli which highlights his importance to Sarriball while off the pitch, if Marcos Alonso offers you a lift then be sure to turn it down as he might end up killing you when drunkenly ploughing his car into a wall.
What’s the Albion’s record against Chelsea like?
Absolutely horrific. Brighton’s league record against Chelsea reads played six, lost six. There have been more major riots (two) in games against Chelsea than the Albion have managed league goals in the fixture (one). Our sole success outside of wartime football against the Blues came in the third round of the FA Cup in 1933, a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Arthur Attwood and Tug Wilson.
What’s the best WeAreBrighton.com memory of Chelsea at home?
Last years 4-0 defeat was our only competitive game with Chelsea for a generation. We did meet in a pre-season friendly at the Amex at 2012 though in what was the Blues’ first game on British soil after their famous Champions League final victory in Munich. Remarkably, Gus Poyet’s Albion outplayed a full strength Chelsea to win 3-1 with goals from Vicente, Ashley Barnes and Andrew Crofts. It wasn’t so much a case of Brighton being better than the European champions but more that the visitors were woeful. Most in attendance that day predicted a season of struggle for Chelsea and so it proved with Robert Di Matteo sacked within three months and the hated Rafa Benitez having ride to their rescue by leading them to third place and success in the Europa League.
What’s the worst WeAreBrighton.com memory of Chelsea at home?
There was toe-curling embarrassment when a supposed-Brighton fan in the East Stand held up a sign saying “Hazard please can I have you shirt” at the Chelsea game last season. Even worse were his parents, beaming and clapping the man who’d just single handedly torn us apart. Everything that’s wrong with modern football was present there in one scene and all the evidence that other club’s supporters need when criticising the plastic nature of the Albion fan base.
Whose played for both sides?
As a former Chelsea player, Poyet loved to go back to his old club to sign young players. Among those who moved to the Amex after being released by the Blues youth set up were Liam Bridcutt, Rohan Ince, Anton Rodgers and Ben Sampayo.
Other than football, what is Chelsea famous for?
Money, money, money. Chelsea is one of the richest areas of the country which is probably what attracted Abramovich to the club in the first place. It’s also the setting for one of the worst television shows imaginable, Made in Chelsea, whose only redeeming feature is that it gave the world the lovely Toff who was recently dethroned as Ruler of the Jungle by ‘Arry Redknapp.
Where’s the betting value for Brighton v Chelsea?
Remarkably, two of the five football tipsters in Saturday’s Racing Post had Chelsea down as the favourites they’d most like to take on this weekend. This was based on the fact that the Blues haven’t been anywhere near as fluent away from home as they have at Stamford Bridge and their record is patchy immediately after returning from Thursday night away games in Europe. A result against Chelsea seems wishful thinking but we’ve already looked a lot more competence against the top six so far this season than in 2017-18 so the Albion should at least trouble the scoreboard this time, making both teams to score appealing at 21/20.
Meanwhile, our partners over at Fansbet are offering a boosted 3/1 for Brighton to score first which you can take advantage of by clicking here.
Prediction
Chelsea should have too much class for the Albion so we’re going for a 2-1 win for the visitors, a big improvement on the Blues’ last visit to the Amex.
