Chelsea-Brighton is a League Cup third round match and is played on Wednesday at 20:45: stats, line-ups and predictions
Chelsea now seem to be living an endless crisis and it can be said loudly after the first six Premier League matches, without any fear of denial.
At Aston Villa, in the last round of the championship, Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues cashed in another defeat, the third since the season began. An increasingly paradoxical situation when you consider how much the club has spent on the market since the summer of 2022. Pochettino’s big problem is, indisputably, the attack. His Chelsea builds but struggles to finalise: against the Villans they were even without a goal for the third consecutive game. The Blues’ last goal dates back to last August, when with no small amount of suffering they managed to get the better of Wimbledon – a team that plays in the fourth league – in the League Cup, which had also managed to take the lead at Stamford Bridge. The Argentine coach, in short, must find a cure as soon as possible, also because the distance from the places that count is already becoming abysmal: Chelsea is fourteenth with five points, nine less than fourth-placed Tottenham.
The League Cup, meanwhile, could become a realistic goal in a season in which the Blues are not participating in any European competition.
Gross
Brighton, on the other hand, are living a diametrically opposite moment: Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls recovered immediately after the defeat in the Europa League against Aek Athens, beating Bournemouth 3-1 at the Amex Stadium, the third consecutive victory for the team coached by the coach from Brescia. The victory against the Cherries allowed Brighton to move up to third place in the table, overtaking both Tottenham and Arsenal. De Zerbi is expected to make a few changes, his colleague Pochettino cannot afford that luxury given the number of injuries he has to deal with.
The prediction
Chelsea haven’t beaten Brighton since 2020: the last time the two teams met was last August, in a friendly that ended 4-3 to the Blues. The conditions seem to be in place for another prolific contest – the Seagulls have scored 20 goals in all competitions – in which Pochettino’s side could also break free. However, De Zerbi’s men, who are capable of making a splash in London, can be given confidence.
Chelsea-Brighton’s likely line-up
- CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Petrovic; Disasi, Thiago Silva, Colwill, Chilwell; Caicedo, Gallagher; Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, Sterling; Broja.
- BRIGHTON (4-2-3-1): Steele; Lamptey, Van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan; Lallana, Gilmour; March, Ansu Fati, Mitoma; Joao Pedro.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
