Match Preview: European Super League Chelsea v Little Old Brighton
Could this be the last match preview we ever write for Chelsea v Brighton & Hove Albion?
Unless you have spent the past 24 hours living under a rock, you will know that Roman Abramovich has decided that he does not like being below Leicester City and West Ham United and so is going to take Chelsea and his Russian roubles into the European Super League alongside 11 other clubs with a vastly inflated opinion of their importance.
The Blues could subsequently be banned from any domestic competition. Stamford Bridge will instead host endless repeats of Chelsea v Arsenal which will be completely meaningless as the new Super League is a closed-shop with nothing to play for other than top spot.
Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City do not want any competition to what they consider to be their God-given right to always compete at the top table.
Laughably, two of the club’s joining the European Super League have already been beaten by little old Brighton this season. Wouldn’t it be great if the Albion showed Chelsea that they are far from super with a first ever league win over the Blues?
Chelsea this season
A quick glance at the Premier League table shows you why Chelsea want to abandon English football as despite all their riches which should ingrain a distinct financial advantage, the Blues find themselves trailing in the wake of the work done by Brendan Rodgers and David Moyes at far less fashionable clubs.
To miss out on the top four after spending over £220 million on players in the summer is some going. It is this stammering form which cost Chelsea legend Frank Lampard his job too, sacked in January to be replaced by Thomas Tuchel.
In fairness to Tuchel, he has instigated an impressive upturn since taking over and Chelsea could yet finish the season with two pieces of silverware, presuming they are not booted out of the Champions League and FA Cup.
A European semi final awaits against Real Madrid whilst in the FA Cup, the Blues will face Leicester in the final at Wembley. The footballing world will be very much hoping for a Foxes win to leave more egg on the faces of Abrahmovic and Chelsea at the hands of another apparently non-Super club.
Recent form
Tuchel enjoyed an excellent start to life at Stamford Bridge, going unbeaten in his first 14 matches in charge. It was another non-Super club who beat a Tuchel-led Chelsea for the first time, Big Sam Allardyce overseeing an astonishing 5-2 victory for West Brom over the Blues.
In their past six, Chelsea have won four and lost two. As well as that defeat to the Baggies, they were beaten 1-0 by Porto in the Champions League but still progressed via a 2-1 aggregate victory.
Brighton will arrive in West London in decent form themselves. Seven points from four matches is impressive enough, but it might well have been more were it not for some controversial refereeing in a 2-1 defeat at Manchester United.
Yes, that was another European Super League club needing VAR and bent refereeing to help them to three points from little Brighton & Hove Albion.
Chelsea v Brighton head-to-head
The feint of heart should look away from this section of our Chelsea v Brighton match preview. There have been 11 previous league meetings between Seagulls and Blues, with the head-to-head reading zero Brighton wins, one draw and 10 Chelsea victories.
Chelsea used to be notorious for their hooligan element during the 1970s and 1980s, and as result there have actually been more riots in the fixture than there have Brighton successes.
Blues fans went on the rampage twice at the Goldstone Ground, including in 1983 when Chelsea player Chris Hutchings was arrested as part of the commotion.
In a wonderful twist of fate, by the time Hutchings was in the dock at Hove Magistrates’ Court to answer for his actions, he had become a Brighton player after Chris Cattlin paid £50,00 for his services shortly after succeeding Jimmy Melia as manager.
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Head-to-Head record with Chelsea
Last six meetings between Brighton and Chelsea
• Brighton 1-3 Chelsea (Premier League, 14/09/20)
• Brighton 1-1 Chelsea (Premier League, 01/01/20)
• Chelsea 2-0 Brighton (Premier League, 28/09/19)
• Chelsea 3-0 Brighton (Premier League, 03/04/19)
• Brighton 1-2 Chelsea (Premier League, 16/12/18)
• Brighton 0-4 Chelsea (Premier League, 20/01/18)
Unsurprisingly given that dreadful head-to-head record, the past six meetings do not make for great reading either. Five defeats and one draw, coming on New Year’s Day 2020 when Alireza Jahanbakhsh defied all that we know about his footballing ability to score a stunning bicycle kick to salvage a point late on.
Brighton are yet to score at Stamford Bridge in their current spell as a top flight side. In fact, it is hard to recall the Albion even having a shot on target away at Chelsea in three dreary away performances.
Team news
Not going to lie here, we did not pay much attention to Graham Potter’s Chelsea preview press conference as European football breaking apart at the seams seemed more interesting than whether Aaron Connolly would be fit for Brighton.
With a winnable game at Sheffield United to come at the weekend, there is an argument that Potter should rest players for Chelsea away. The Blues though are coming off the back of two tough matches against Porto and Manchester City and as West Brom showed, getting a result at Stamford Bridge these days is possible.
Adam Webster returned to the bench following injury for the 0-0 draw with Everton and in a game like this, you need your best defenders on the pitch.
How you fit him in is less clear; Pascal Gross or Jakub Moder would be the obvious players to miss out, but both have been outstanding in recent weeks as unorthodox wing backs, so good luck to Potter trying to justify jettisoning either of them.
Chelsea’s danger men
It is mad to think that five months ago, Mason Mount was a figure of fun who many thought was in the Chelsea team simply because he was Lampard’s favourite.
That teacher’s pet caricature could not be further from the truth and Mount is finally being recognised as one of England’s outstanding midfield talents.
If Brighton want to get anything from Stamford Bridge, they will need to stop Mount scheming. The good news is that Yves Bissouma carried out a similar job flawlessly against Everton, keeping James Rodriguez pretty quiet.
A similarly disciplined defensive performance from Bissouma against Mount will help Brighton upset the apple cart.
The betting value for Chelsea v Brighton
You might think that we have gone completely mad with this next section of our preview which looks at the best odds for Chelsea v Brighton as we are tipping the Albion to avoid defeat.
History suggests a loss at Stamford Bridge but Brighton have been hard to beat this season, rarely losing by more than one goal. The draw at 14/5 therefore looks like a big price.
An interesting subplot
As already noted in our match preview, Brighton have beaten Spurs and Liverpool already this season, two clubs who are joining Chelsea in the European Super League.
If we manage to beat a third with victory at Stamford Bridge, then over half of the English participants will have lost to little old Brighton. Maybe Tony Bloom’s invitation to join got lost in the post?
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Chelsea away
Three visits, three defeats, zero goals scored. This year’s visit to Chelsea might well be the best of the lot because the pandemic has given us a ready-made excuse not to have to attend.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Chelsea away
Of those three defeats, the Boxing Day trip in 2017 was particularly painful. With no public transport, over 40,000 people snaked their way to West London via car and that meant that getting out afterwards became impossible.
The game finished at 4.50pm. Chelsea to Brighton is no more than a 50 mile drive which should take an hour and a half, tops. And yet some Albion fans did not get home until gone 9pm having not seen Brighton have a shot on goal. Merry Christmas everyone.
Chelsea’s most famous fan
Chelsea have many famous fans although funnily enough, a lot of them were never associated with the club before Abramovich rocked up in 2003 with all his money to turn the Blues into serial trophy winners.
One man who apparently supported Chelsea before they were funded by questionably-gained Russian cash was Bill Clinton. No, we have no idea why either.
Prediction
We backed the draw in the betting bit of our match preview and we are sticking with it here – Chelsea 1-1 Brighton to hopefully leave the Blues looking a lot less super than they would like.
