Battle at the Bridge: Chelsea 3-2 Brighton photos
It is rarely dull when Brighton face Chelsea anymore as these photos from a spicy afternoon which ended 3-2 to the hosts at Stamford Bridge show.
Todd Boehly has spent over £200 million buying players, management and other backroom staff from the Albion over the past year. Seagulls supporters subsequently dislike the Blues for what they feel is the constant pillaging of their club.
Self-entitled Chelsea fans now hate the Albion because Tony Bloom drives a hard bargain and refuses to sell unless his asking price is met.
This, apparently, is not how you do business with a club who has won two Champions Leagues. You are supposed to roll over, have your tummy tickled and let Chelsea have whoever they want.
Not extract a scarcely believable £62 million for Marc Cucurella, £115 million for Moises Caicedo or £21.5 million for Graham Potter.
All that expenditure – part of £1 billion lavished under the more-money-than-sense Boehly – has resulted in the Blues sitting six points below Brighton in the Premier League table before the sides met in West London.
This result cut that gap to three points, which is still pretty embarrassing on the part of Chelsea given the gulf in finances between the clubs and the way Boehly ransacks the Amex for anything not nailed down.
Poor set piece marking from Brighton allowed Enzo Fernandez and Levi Colwill to put the Blues 2-0 ahead inside of 20 minutes.
The Albion though responded through Facundo Buonanotte and when Chelsea captain Conor Gallagher was sent off on the stroke of half time, it was very much game on.
Unfortunately for Brighton, the second half saw referee Craig Pawson and VAR make some baffling decisions. Caicedo was lucky to escape a red card of his own and the Blues were awarded a ridiculously soft penalty converted by Fernandez.
Joao Pedro pulled one back with a deft glancing header in injury time but it was too little, too late. Brighton had been undone by questionable defending and even more questionable officiating, whilst the full time whistle brought former Albion goalkeeper Robert Sanchez losing his mind and screaming at the away end.
A confrontation with Lewis Dunk followed, which sets things up nicely for when the Blues visit the Amex in April. Seeing Brighton repeat their 4-1 humiliation of Chelsea from last October would be almost as sweet second time around.
If you have any photos you would like included in our Chelsea 3-2 Brighton gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
