Chelsea 1-0 Brighton: Blues win their Carabao Cup Final

From Charlton Athletic to Walsall to Newport County, the past decade is littered with the Albion suffering League Cup elimination at the hands of lower placed clubs. Chelsea can now add their name to that list after pulling off an almighty upset by beating Brighton 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.

You could see how much this shock victory meant to Blues fans everywhere. They celebrated it as if they had just won the final at Wembley, rather than a third round tie.

The Carabao Cup is a much-maligned competition. This served as a reminder of its purpose; giving smaller clubs their day in the sun by beating one of the top six. Bless ’em.

Whilst Chelsea will now be counting down the days until they host Blackburn Rovers in round four, the Albion will be looking to bounce back from this defeat in their next three matches before the October international break.

Brighton face sixth placed Aston Villa on Saturday, travel to the south of France to take on Marseille next Thursday and then it is third meets second when Liverpool come to the Amex.

Early days it might be, but that game could well prove pivotal in the race for the 2023-24 Premier League title and who of Jurgen Klopp’s Reds or Roberto De Zerbi’s Albion can challenge Manchester City.

The two above paragraphs explain why most Seagulls supporters greeted Chelsea 1-0 Brighton with nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders.

With the Albion eyeing up Champions League qualification, a good run in Europe and going better than last season’s FA Cup semi final appearance, the Carabao Cup was very much fourth place in the list of priorities.

Not that Roberto De Zerbi necessarily saw it that way. He said before the game he would send out a side good enough to win the tie and remained true to his word, despite Brighton facing the prospect of playing three times a week for the foreseeable future.

Pervis Estupinan captained the Albion, Mahmoud Dahoud and Carlos Baleba made up the midfield two and there were also starts for Kaoru Mitoma, Ansu Fati and Joao Pedro.

Mauricio Pochettino went strong too, as he was almost forced to do by circumstances. Chelsea had beaten only Luton Town so far in the 2023-24 campaign.

Rumours were already beginning to swirl that Pochettino’s job might be in doubt should his team go through three more winless games against the Albion, Fulham and Burnley.

Four former Seagulls all started for Chelsea. Robert Sanchez, Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo had set Todd Boehly back just the £202 million whilst Levi Colwill enjoyed a fine season on loan at the Amex last time out, establishing himself as one of the best young centre backs in the world.

Sanchez, Cucurella and Caicedo were all given receptions from the 4,000 plus away end befitting of men who forced their way to Stamford Bridge to line their pockets.

Colwill in contrast earned the respect of Brighton fans for the way in which he conducted himself during his year with Brighton.

Chelsea 1-0 Brighton might well have turned out different had the game not hinged on three key first half moments. On another day, the Albion go into the break 2-0 ahead with Chelsea down to 10 men.

The Blues subsequently crash out of the Carabao Cup whilst “You’re getting sacked in the morning” rings out from the away end.

And the celebratory dancing in the streets of West London, Lagos and Yamoussoukro is replaced by angry social media messages wishing relegation on Brighton and asking where the Seagulls’ two Champions League trophies are.

The first moment came when Sanchez got in a right mess with the ball at his feet, highlighted exactly why De Zerbi had jettisoned him for Jason Steele last season.

An attempted pass out from the back by Sanchez went straight to Pedro, only for the Brazilian forward to lob onto the roof of the net with the goal gaping.

Eight minutes later and the Albion should have scored again. The impressive Carlos Baleba showed that he can be the next Caicedo by dispossessing, erm, Caicedo after another poor pass from Sanchez put the midfielder under pressure.

“He does realise he plays for Chelsea now and not Brighton?” was one wonderful comment about Sanchez’s first half efforts. Fortunately for Sanchez, Fati was wasteful with the resulting opportunity teed up by Baleba.

The hosts were then lucky to keep 11 men on the pitch. Chimuanya Ugochukwu had been booked minutes before he then wiped out Baleba for a clear yellow card foul.

Had VAR been in operation, it surely would have alerted referee Thomas Bramall to his cock up and Ugochukwu is heading for an early bath. For all the problems the Albion have endured with technology, this was a night they were ruing its absence.

Dahoud started the second half with what can only be described as a Sunday League style air kick. The midfielder was in a good shooting position, only to completely miss the ball like a man suffering at 10.45am at Waterhall after stumbling out of PRYZM just five hours earlier following one too many Fosters.

That moment of ineptitude lost some of its hilarity when Chelsea scored the winner a few minutes later. Cole Palmer put the ball through the legs of Jan Paul van Hecke to play in Nicolas Jackson and he swept an effort right footed beyond Bart Verbruggen.

It was the first goal Chelsea had managed to score since August. With their next game not until the trip to Craven Cottage on Monday 2nd October, Jackson wins the Blues September Goal of the Month Award by default. Congratulations to him.

Jackson almost had two more contenders for Goal of the Month. Verbruggen made an instinctive block from the first and the second saw the Chelsea forward find the back of the net, only for the offside flag to go up.

Pochettino had obviously reminded Sanchez who he plays for at half time and there was a fine save to prevent substitute Solly March equalising with a diving header.

By this point, you began to sense it was not going to be the Albion’s night. Pedro summed that up late in the day when volleying a Tariq Lamptey effort over the bar from close range.

Chelsea 1-0 Brighton was a limp exit from the Carabao Cup all things considered. A realistic opportunity to win the first major piece of silverware in Albion history ended at the first hurdle.

But credit to the Blues on being victorious in their own Carabao Cup final. We will all be thinking of you and that glamour tie with Blackburn when sipping red wine in Marseille, eating cake in Amsterdam and necking Mythos in Athens over the next eight weeks.