Chelsea 1-2 Brighton (Gallagher 13’| Welbeck 42′, Enciso 69′)
Stamford Bridge is used to games like this. A sharp side of European quality battered and bruised their mid-table opposition into silent surrender. Of course, Brighton were the Champions League contenders on this occasion, while Chelsea must contend with the fact their season is over in all but name.
Frank Lampard’s side came into this game having made six changes from Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid. Reverting to four-at-the-back, with an industrious midfield and fast wingers, this line-up at least bore the Lampard stamp, some evidence that Chelsea’s training since his arrival had not just been for show.
Denis Zakaria and Trevoh Chalobah were recalled from exile, with Reece James and N’Golo Kante rested. Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk and Christian Pulisic formed an attacking trio devoid of form or flair, but fans took to Twitter to point out it was, at the very least, something different.
Yet for all the hope and hype ahead of this game, the banners and big welcomes and choruses of “Super Frank”, those changes were exactly as they appeared – rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Brighton’s masterplan was neither subtle nor particularly advanced. Their centre-backs held onto the ball for as long as seemed reasonable, then some more for good measure. If they knew anything about Chelsea’s rag-tag bunch of multi-millionaire misfits, it’s that they were keen to impress, desperate to alter their dire fortunes.
Lampard’s side obliged. Conor Gallagher dived at a dilly-dallying Lewis Dunk, followed heedlessly by his nine outfield teammates. Dunk found Alexis Mac Allister, who in turn found Evan Ferguson. In just two passes, Brighton had not just bypassed Chelsea’s press, they had bypassed their entire team.
Within the first 10 minutes, Brighton had 78% possession, teasing and taunting Chelsea’s over-eager novices and outcasts. Mac Allister cheaply fired a Kaoru Mitoma cut-back wide and Ferguson rattled the crossbar from the edge of the area. Yet there was one positive for the home side.
For his first 16 Chelsea appearances until today, Mykhailo Mudryk appeared more like a concept piece, a very expensive piece of modern art, supposedly genius but fundamentally devoid of content or meaning.
Yet four minutes in, the young Ukrainian picked up the ball on the left and ran at Joel Veltman, who appeared as confused as the Chelsea fans around him when he was forced to foul Mudryk. This was a different player, suddenly fast and fierce and furious, possessed by purpose.
Moments later, Dunk was forced to slice Mudryk’s low cross over his own goal. With eleven minutes on the clock, the bleached-blonde Flash impressionist nipped and tucked through the Brighton midfield, faking right but instead playing the onrushing Gallagher in on goal.
The ball ricocheted off Dunk’s right boot, the same one which had frustrated the home side in the opening moments, looping over Robert Sanchez and into his goal.
For one beautiful, fleeting moment, the sun came out to greet the new wave of Blue optimism, a first goal in five games. They would not be breaking any more records for their profligacy in front of goal. Was the deflection perhaps even a sign that their luck had changed?
That was a resounding no. In fact, that was as good as it got for Chelsea. Throughout a first-half won by Brighton on everything but goals, Mitoma used his famed degree in dribbling to great effect, ruthlessly deceiving Chalobah at every opportunity. Ferguson nearly equalised five minutes before half-time, but his excellent header was matched by an extraordinary save from Kepa, temporarily injuring both.
The prodigious Irishman did not recover, replaced by Danny Welbeck. Three minutes later, Pascal Gross’s left-footed cross pierced a sliver of space between Wesley Fofana and Zakaria, which was quickly occupied by Welbeck’s head. The game was level and there was only going to be one winner.
For periods, Brighton shared Chelsea’s great ailment from this season – the ability to play beautiful football but the inability to score goals. Twenty-six shots, 10 on target, aptly demonstrates the brilliance of Roberto de Zerbi’s side, yet their winner was the finest moment of the afternoon.
During the first Lampard regime, Kepa Arrizabalaga came under huge criticism for his penchant for conceding goals from long-range. While this was often attributed to his perceived lack of height for a goalkeeper, despite being 6ft2, it just as much reflected the space Lampard’s sides tend to leave in front of their defensive line.
That space has followed Lampard to Stamford Bridge. With 21 minutes to go, having survived a veritable barrage of flowing moves and close-range efforts, Chelsea’s stand-in captain succumbed to a wondrous strike from 19-year-old Paraguayan forward Julio Enciso. For just his second Premier League goal, Enciso launched a missile from 35 yards only ever destined for Kepa’s top corner.
It was a goal Brighton’s performance deserved and Chelsea’s defensive naivety permitted. The Blues have taken the Seagulls’ left-back, director of recruitment and manager in the past year, yet looked no better than they did in October’s 4-1 reverse fixture. This was more like Lampard, but less like Chelsea.
Stamford Bridge will host Real Madrid in its next game, the second leg of Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final. Once more a team of European quality will face a mid-table equivalent in west London. Expect the same result.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/JEGTc1a
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