Brighton 1-1 Chelsea: Champions of Europe, you’re not very good
Can somebody send Thomas Tuchel some flowers? For the second time in the space of 20 days, the Chelsea manager was left with tears in his eyes as his Blues side were held to a 1-1 draw by little old Brighton.
“Champions of Europe, you know what we are” sung the visiting support. What we actually know Chelsea to be are a bang-average football team, as evidenced by the fact that the Albion have now outplayed them twice this season. One point from the Blues could very, very easily have been six.
Just like in the previous 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel blamed his side’s failure to win on anything that happened to pop into his mind.
Tiredness, fixture congestion, the lockdown party which Boris Johnson did not realise was against the rules, Adele’s new album, global warming, the fact a bag of Stabrust at the Amex costs £3.20… you name it and Tuchel complained about it.
The truth though is that the Champions of Europe were simply not good enough to overcome Brighton – a Brighton who, lest we forget, started the game without Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy, Yves Bissouma, Adam Lallana, Lenadro Trossard or Neal Maupay on the pitch.
Unlike Tuchel, Graham Potter did not complain about his absentees or having to rest his most important players.
The Albion simply get on with the job, unperturbed by injuries and unavailability that Tuchel, Jurgen Klopp, Ralf Rangnick and the other managers of the European Super League Elite Six blame for their billion pound squads failing to overcome #TeamsLikeBrighton.
Chelsea with Roman’s roubles should be beating a full strength Brighton. That means there cannot be any excuses for the Blues not triumphing against an Albion XI that appeared to have been picked via the return of Potter Roulette.
Clearly, Graham of Solihull viewed Leicester City this Sunday as a more winnable game. He rested Brighton’s two leading scorers, naming a side that screamed weakened FA Cup starting XI rather than one that looked like it could be competitive against Chelsea.
Most Albion fans would not have expected a draw when the team was announced. The general reaction in the pub was “Have I had too many Amstel?”
We should know better by now of course not to be too judgemental of Potter’s teams. Although whacky line ups have been in short supply since Pascal Gross at full back away at Burnley on the opening day of the season, the Albion boss still has the capability of throwing a curve ball out here every now and again.
Even though it sometimes appears that the team has been selected by Phil Mitchell when he was on crack circa 2010, Potter gets his selection right more often than not.
That was certainly the case in Brighton 1-1 Chelsea, as evidenced by the point the Albion took and the moaning from Tuchel at full time.
Despite the unusual look to the Albion, it was the Seagulls who started the game the stronger. Jakub Moder and Danny Welbeck combined twice inside the opening 10 minutes to create a couple of good opportunities, one of which needed to be snuffed out by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Alexis Mac Allister saw an effort blocked by Antonio Rudgier. Welbeck was uncharacteristically wasteful for a couple of opportunities and crosses flew into the box on what felt like a minute-by-minute basis as Brighton dominated.
That the Albion went into half time behind was cruel in the extreme. The Chelsea goal came from nothing, Hakim Ziyech hitting a snapshot which appeared to catch Robert Sanchez by surprise as the Brighton goalkeeper was beaten at his near post from outside the box.
Other than the interesting deployment of a volleyball spike to turn away a Cesar Azpiliqueta effort, that was the only piece of action that Sanchez saw during the opening 45 minutes.
The only complaint Brighton fans could have about the first half was perhaps a lack of focal point to the attack. Welbeck naturally drifts into wide positions, which is all well and good when he has Maupay alongside him.
When he is leading the line alone however, when he meanders into the left channel it means there is often no Brighton player in the box. The game looked like it was crying out for Maupay to come on and make something happen in and around the area.
Welbeck had another good opportunity within minutes of the restart. Pascal Gross has been much-maligned following his penalty miss in the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Friday night but he reminded everyone of what he brings to the party, splitting the Chelsea defence with a pass that was the definition of precision.
Dat Guy though slipped as he went to shoot, resulting in an effort that would have looked more at home in the upcoming Six Nations than a Premier League game of football.
Kepa was troubled for the first time in the second half by Mac Allister, pulling off one of the best reaction saves the Amex has seen when clawing the ball out of the corner of the Chelsea goal at the expense of a corner.
There was nothing Kepa could do from the resulting set piece as the score became Brighton 1-1 Chelsea. Mac Allister delivered, the outstanding Adam Webster escaped the attentions of his marker with a clever run and found himself free to power a bullet header into the back of the net.
Pandemonium rained down on the Amex, much to Tuchel’s disgust. In amongst all his other gripes, the Chelsea manager appeared to criticise Albion fans afterwards for celebrating the draw as if it were victory.
Sorry Thomas, but if supporters of a club who 11 years ago were playing in the third tier of English football at an athletics stadium holding less than 9,000 people cannot enjoy holding the European Champions, then we might as well all give up watching football.
One young fan in particular got a little overexcited and ended up on the pitch. The Albion have since put out a statement saying that those who cross the advertising hoarding will be dealt with severely, which in typical Brighton style seemed to be making a mountain out of a molehill.
Said Brighton fan was instantly apologetic, holding his hands up as he was carted away. Rather than slap a lifetime ban on a teenager celebrating a goal, the club should probably be wondering how it was that two supporters from the away end managed to get to the halfway line at full time to take selfies with Chelsea players.
They might also like to consider away fans sitting in home sections and the shambles that was getting away from the Amex following the Palace game on Friday night, which left plenty of Albion fans genuinely concerned that they were going to be crushed.
There is plenty that the security team at the Albion and Sussex Police should be focussing on other than punishing and dragging somebody through the courts for the crime of hugging Webster after the Albion defend scored in Brighton 1-1 Chelsea.
Maupay and Trossard entered the action following the equaliser, leaving nobody in any doubt that Potter wanted his side to go on and win the game.
Whilst Trossard had a couple of exciting runs, Maupay struggled to get into any sort of rhythm and a couple of loose touches ended up frustrating the home crowd.
In contrast, Chelsea seemed to grow in strength towards the end. Tuchel’s whinging seemed particularly hollow when he made a treble substitution with 10 minutes remaining, throwing on Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic. What a hard life poor Thomas has, only having options like that on the bench.
Kovacic fired over and Marcos Alonso drove a free kick into the wall < insert comment about killing a girl whilst drink driving here >.
Brighton were desperately holding on by the end and there was a sense of relief come the full time whistle, something which again did not please Herr Tuchel. How dare Albion fans cheer the end of the game.
Although Chelsea finished the stronger, Brighton were more than worthy of their point. The Albion have lost only four games all season now and remain unbeaten against all of the European Super League Elite six bar Manchester City.
Most damagingly for Chelsea, dropping four points against Brighton via two 1-1 draws in the space of 20 days all but ends their hopes of overtaking City.
When you consider that the Albion have therefore proved terminal to Chelsea’s hopes of winning a first Premier League title since 2017, is it little wonder that Tuchel seems to have such a problem with Brighton.
Champions of Europe Chelsea might well be. And Albion fans might never get to sing about their side winning a European Cup. But right now, Brighton are Chelsea’s equal. Put some respect on our name, Thomas.
