On Tuesday evening, the Amex Stadium saw the 24th match week tie between Brighton and Chelsea. Not being able to beat Chelsea in their thirteen Premier League games, Brighton’s last and only victory in this match-up came 89 years ago in a FA Cup game.
Chelsea dropped their usual 3-4-3 formation, which led them to the Champions League trophy last season, in favour of a more attacking 4-2-3-1 after a poor run of results. Mason Mount came in for Christian Pulisic, who performed poorly in the weekend’s game against Manchester City, and Thomas Tuchel decided to put in Callum Hudson-Odoi at the expense of Malang Sarr.
In addition to the injury-related absence of Adam Lallana, Graham Potter decided to drop Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard to the bench. Tariq Lamptey, who replaced Lallana in the Crystal Palace fixture, Danny Welbeck, and Steven Alzate were named in the starting line-up.
In the early stages of the game, Brighton were in control. Adopting their usual shape of 3-5-2, they pressed high, with Welbeck getting close to the left side of the pitch, in order to control Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta’s involvement in the build-up, where he stayed deep to form a three man backline in an effort to aid Chelsea build from the back. Left wing-back Marc Cucurella constantly pushed higher up the pitch to help Brighton’s press, supporting Welbeck. With Alexis Mac Allister and Pascal Gross man-marking N’Golo Kanté and Jorginho, the main agents in Chelsea’s build-up, and the relentless Tariq Lamptey controlling attacking full-back Marcos Alonso brilliantly, Brighton didn’t let Chelsea play out of their own half and constantly regained the ball.
With their players’ ability to rotate successfully, Brighton beat Chelsea’s press easily time after time. Pushing Romelu Lukaku to the right and Hudson-Odoi to the left, Mount was clearly assigned by Tuchel to disrupt Brighton’s deeper midfielder – in this case Steven Alzate, who made his only second start in PL this season – from involving himself in the build-up. Mount failed, overran by the other central midfielders of Brighton, who were willing to come deeper and help their team to play organised, position-dominating football. This was not that much of a surprise after the teams’ previous meeting at Stamford Bridge, where Brighton had more of the ball.
When they had the ball, Brighton looked more inventive, and therefore dangerous, than last year’s European champions. With the pure attacking intent of both their wing-backs, Graham Potter’s men adopted a shape that seemed like a 4-1-4-1, with Alzate covered the space that is created by Cucurella pushing forward, whereas Joel Veltman, playing a mixed role sometimes as a centre back and sometimes as a holding full-back, did the same for Lamptey.
They were unable to create a significant danger other than Jakub Moder’s shot going wide in the second minute of the game though, where he took the ball from Welbeck’s classy backheel and shot from the edge of the penalty area. Once again Brighton were punished for of not being able to score when they are on the front foot – this time by Hakim Ziyech’s magical wand of a left foot. Tuchel’s plan of creating a forward duo of Lukaku and Hudson-Odoi when out of possession, attacking the gaps Brighton’s wing-backs left when they pushed forward, didn’t seem to work, but Ziyech’s 25 yard shot found the near bottom corner of Robert Sanchez’s goal, leaving Brighton and Hove Albion chasing their opponents in the 29th minute.
Boosted by their dubiously-deserved lead, Chelsea’s plan to press started to come to fruition. Kanté and Jorginho started to push forward into the areas where they could stop Mac Allister and Gross from getting involved with the build-up. Not allowing Brighton to play out of their half, Chelsea attacked, with Alonso pushing into his favoured positions high up to pitch and Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech coming inside close to the central Lukaku. Mount provided support from midfield for the remainder of the half, where almost nothing significant happened for either side, aside from a few bits of brilliance from Ziyech, who is a joy to watch when playing with confidence. The Moroccan created a half-chance for his team at the end of the half, only for Hudson-Odoi to put the ball well above goal, missing the chance to go 2-0 up which would later haunt Tuchel’s men.
At the start of the second half, Brighton caught Chelsea cold, as Gross unleashed Welbeck, only for him to put the ball wide of the goal with his weak foot just 20 seconds into the half. The game lost its tempo and excitement until the 60th minute, when Brighton crowded the Chelsea box and Cucurella’s low cross served up a deflected shot from Mac Allister, which Kepa Arrizabalaga saved brilliantly. Brighton scored brilliantly from the resulting corner though, with set-piece organisation straight from the training ground. Captain Adam Webster got to the end of the Mac Allister’s cross unmarked due to Mount letting him run free.
After the equaliser, Graham Potter introduced Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard in place of Gross and Welbeck.
After the changes, Potter’s men converted their defensive shape to a 4-1-4-1, with Moder dropping to his usual position in midfield, pressed at a lower tempo. Webster’s amazing 60-yard run with the ball resulted in nothing and Trossard’s fresh legs almost did the trick when Neal Maupay failed to get on the end of the Belgian’s low cross.
In the 73rd minute, Antonio Rüdiger unleashed Lukaku in behind the defence, but the centre-forward’s first touch failed him, although Brighton still needed a strong hand from Robert Sanchez to save them.
Three minutes later Potter made his final substitution, replacing Lamptey with Solly March, while Tuchel made his three all at once, bringing on Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic at the expense of Lukaku, Ziyech and Jorginho.
Chelsea lead the Premier League in goals scored in the last ten minutes with nine, while Brighton have seven. Playing in their own half didn’t seem the better thing to do for Graham Potter’s men, but nothing significant happened in the remainder of the match and both teams settled for a draw. Neither side were able to claim three points, but it’s easy to say that things are looking brighter for Potter than they are for Tuchel right now.
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