Will Brighton do or die in FA Cup clash with Chelsea?
Fabian Hurzeler has come in for a lot of criticism over the past month. Some of it fair. Some of it perhaps not. What he undoubtedly deserves praise for is his approach to the FA Cup, again underlined as Brighton prepare to welcome Chelsea to the Amex in the fourth round of the competition.
Hurzeler spoke before the Albion took on Norwich City last month about how the FA Cup represented a chance to win a title. Of treating the world’s greatest cup competition with respect.
Easy to say. Also easy to completely ignore. Yet Hurzeler was true to his word. He sent out pretty much a full strength side at Carrow Road.
It was the sort of game where many other Premier League managers would have made wholesale changes, hoping their team would be good enough to beat Championship opposition. But not overly bothered if they ended up eliminated.
Hurzeler was rewarded with a comfortable 4-0 win over the Canaries. The fourth round draw was admittedly less rewarding.
Based on Chelsea sitting fourth in the Premier League standings, only leaders Liverpool or third placed Nottingham Forest could have been tougher.
Second placed Arsenal are, of course and hilariously, out of the competition. Meaning they look set to end another season with zero trophies to match their grade A arrogance.
If Hurzeler went full strength against Norwich, we can safely assume he will do the same facing the Blues. His words too back that up.
Brighton have never won a piece of major silverware in their 124-year history (unless you want to count the 1910 Charity Shield). Which is why Hurzeler describes the FA Cup as holding “big meaning for the club.”
He went onto say of the Chelsea game: “We will go all in. It is a ‘do or die’ game. We have proven already this season that we can beat everyone. We will have a very positive mindset, of full confidence, to go into this game.”
So, will the Albion do? Or will they die? Based on the 7-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest last week, it will not be so much die as get brutally murdered before being dismembered into tiny pieces.
Logic though has never seen something which goes hand-in-hand with Brighton. We all know the drill by now. Lose 5-1 at home to Everton. Win 3-0 at Arsenal.
Go down 1-0 at home to nine-man Walsall. Knock Manchester City out of the League Cup on penalties. Biggest win in 41 years when thrashing Northwich Victoria 8-0. Lose 1-0 at home to Stockport County a week later.
There are reasons beyond the Albion’s love of veering from the sublime to the ridiculous to believe an upset against Chelsea can be on the cards.
Whilst most Amex experiences so far under Hurzeler have been frustrating bordering on painful, Brighton tend to deliver at home against the better sides.
Manchester United, Spurs and Manchester City all beaten at the Amex. Arsenal held to a draw. Why not throw Forest in there as well?
Picking up a point from a 2-2 against them suddenly looks like a world class result in the context of losing 7-0 five months later at the City Ground.
Playing Chelsea should therefore suit Brighton. And even though the Blues have a billion pound squad making rotation easier, too many changes from Enzo Maresca would represent a risk against full-strength Albion.
What Maresca will do is hard to gauge. He has used a totally different XI in the Europa Conference this season, although you can get away with that against a team from Armenian named after Noah of old testament ark fame.
Likewise, there was wholesale rotation against Barrow in the League Cup and Morecambe in the previous round of the FA Cup.
The clearest indication of how Chelsea might learn up probably comes from their League Cup exit to Newcastle United.
Despite playing a fellow Premier League outfit, Maresca kept Cole Palmer as an unused substitute whilst Moises Caicedo did not even make the bench.
No Palmer would clearly be a huge boost for Brighton. Take away the four first half goals he scored last time the Albion faced Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Brighton would have headed home from West London with a 2-0 win.
Of all the top class sides in Europe, none is quite so reliant on one player as Chelsea are Palmer.
If Palmer is absent, the biggest challenge to Brighton may well come from the atmosphere inside the Amex.
With the game kicking off at 8pm, penalties would mean it not finishing until 11pm. At best, getting a train out of Falmer for the last connections out of Brighton at midnight will be a mad rush.
At worst – and more likely – totally impossible. Anyone needing to go up the Brighton Main Line or along the coast may find themselves forking out for an expensive taxi. Or taking refuge in Molly Malone’s until the first trains out of Brighton at 5am Sunday morning.
Because of this, many Brighton fans who have had the misfortune to experience getting out of Falmer after an evening game before are staying away.
Tickets were removed from sale in the West and East Upper tiers because of such low demand. The Albion have subsequently been scrambling to get the East Lower and North filled so that for the TV cameras at least, the Amex does not look totally desolate.
Brighton have also, in their wisdom, handed more tickets to Chelsea. Meaning an away allocation of 6,000, blissfully unaware of the fun and games waiting for them at Falmer Station afterwards. Good luck and Godspeed to those policing that queue.
Such significant travelling support has the potential to turn this FA Cup tie into more of a home game for Chelsea than Brighton.
The unofficial away numbers are likely to be in excess of 6,000 when also taking into account Chelsea fans who will have bought tickets in the home sections.
If it is an away win, the sheer amount of Blues supporters has the potential to make the aftermath unbearable thanks to their sheer bluster.
But if Brighton come out victorious? A sweet, unexpected success seven days after suffering a heaviest league defeat for 67 minutes would sent Chelsea fans into meltdown from Falmer to Lagos. And we all know how enjoyable that can be.
Do or die?
