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Previous encounters (Chelsea )
CHELSEA - Home, Falmer Years: Prem 17/18-24/25, seasons 7-14. no league meetings in seasons between 2011 to 2017. Prem previous encounters home & away: P14 W2 D4 L8 - see Clubs in Archive. manager: Enzo Maresca (2024) P0 W = 0% @ July '24 . experience: took Leicester straight back up to the Prem in '24. Stamford Bridge: ave gate; 40.1K, cap; 40.3K . nickname: Blues . shirt: dark blue. Prem record from 11/12: 6 3 3 1 10 1 / 5 3 4 4 3 12 6 11 @ 13/9/24. Prem recent best = 1st '15 '17, worst = 12th '23. C21; title - 5 times . runner-up - 4 times, top four - 7 times, top six - 6 times, top ten - 1 time. 24/25 odds at start: title 16/1, top four 6-4, top six 2-5 . sack EM 16/1 . expected to finish: top six run in: Spurs (H), Br'ford (A), Ipswich (H), Fulham (A), Everton (H), Liv'pool (H), N'castle (A), Man Utd (H), Forest (A) run in forecast: ?pt > ?pt . max was ? . actual = ? . Po was ? . actual Po = ? Albion v Chelsea (H) from 17/18: 0-4 1-2 1-1 1-3 1-1 4-1 1-2 . . W = 1 D = 2 L = 4 . F9 A13 scorers: March Jahanbakhsh Trossard 2 Webster Gross Welbeck og 2. memorable match: Season7 (H) - Brighton fans got to see how top strikers contributed to, took and also registered goal-scoring opportuites. note: for away Falmer Years results and reports scroll further below. Season14, 8th Premier League (H) Sat 15/2/25 - tba This reciprocal Feb '25 fixture was the 12th of 19 at home and followed the FA Cup R4 ties last Saturday during mid-season (Q2-3). The reverse game was 28 Sept '24 in the first quarter (Q1) - see away scroll further below. We had lost both matches last season during Dec '23 (A) & May '24 (H) and also away earlier in the League Cup. Last year we'd met here during mid May's run-in when taken apart by travellers slick play. At the halfway stage (Q2) we had xpts and they had xpts. Now at this later stage (Q3) we had xpts and they had xpts. Our Prem record at the Amex versus Blues was; lld ldw l - in all seven seasons to date. Just one win needs obvious improvement. Current home form was; W D L F A tba. Visitors away form was: W D L F A tba. At the moment Brighton were xth, while Chelsea were x from x games played. At the halfway stage we were xth and they were xth. In the last three campaigns we'd been 9, 6 & 8 at the halfway stage and finished 9, 6 & 11. Albion were looking to get rare points off these mega Londoners. Blues were tba in the Europa Conf League. Their latest boss had so far ... in the January window. In the FA Cup . Headline news this week was ... * match report: tba day after result stats: ht , goals , poss %-%, on target , off target , corners , fouls , yellows , subs , shape weather: . gate: . MoM: team: 23 Steele 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 24 Adingra 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck subs: bench: 1 Verbruggen 3 Julio 4 Webster 6 Milner 7 March 9 Pedro 15 Moder 20 Baleba 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood squad: . injured: Prem P25 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Blues: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% start: 03 . 01 01 01 . 07 05 02 . 04 9 = 1.33 . 33.3 33.3 - Europa Conference: Servette 2-1 (A) 2-0 (H) p-os EFL Cup: Barrow (H) R3 FA Cup: R3 Nov: xth in table, xpts off xth at Q1 Season13, 7th Premier League (H) Wed 15/5/24 - L 1-2 ~ Welbeck This match was rearranged for mid May due to Blues FA Cup s-f appearance clashing with PL fixtures in late April. We were now deep into the run-in, with only two consecutive home games to go for completion of our 7th Prem campaign. So far visitors habitual away record was; W6 D5 L7 F31 A36 - fairly average stats. Our Prem record at the Amex versus Blues was; lld ldw - in six seasons to date. A recent single win but there were goals in majority of games at both ends. Current home form was; W8 D6 L3 F29 A23 - useful returns. At the moment Brighton were 10th, while Chelsea were 7th with just these two games here left. In the January transfer window no big business got done by any Prem clubs due to enforced fair play rules & regs. So our original squad soldiered on, although that ongoing injury list was extra long at times and RdZ made up match-day groups with several U21s sat on the bench. Blues had changed managers 4 times during our Prem years, Graham Potter being their usual seasonal casualty during a fraught last term. But Mauricio Pochettino seemed safe at the moment due to much improved form. Based on previous meetings Brighton were looking for a second straight win hosting Chelsea. Mid table had developed into a scrap for a place in Europe next season, which current Prem results would decide. Albion had blown it but Blues were still in the hunt. They had gained momentum, cruising past us in recent weeks as we faltered to score goals during the run in. Our small tally of 3 from 7 was; 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 - one og, one spot-kick rebound and one at a corner routine. Brighton were positioned at dead centre of the table, had very average stats of W12 D12 L12 and badly needed to prove a proverbial point by raising the game in front of devoted support. After all, Chelsea had spent a lot of money at Brighton. * match report: where to begin... oh yes, another loss against a big-six side heading for Europe. Chelsea had indeed improved enormously since we last met, while we were going in the opposite direction just as quickly. Brighton now looked a shadow of the side that had begun this disappointing campaign full of vigor, pep and desire. Blues won fair and square and it all started to kickoff early when Ref was sent by VAR to review his pen decision against us. But a little later visitors did take the lead when Verbruggen couldn't get up to a flighted header across the box (34mins). Dunk didn't come out for the second period either and Albion were set up less strongly as we chased the game. The fluent away outfit went two ahead after the hour mark, so it was all over bar the singing behind the south goal (64 mins). We'd been caught out again through defensive slips and couldn't take our chances to make a game of it. At the death Ref sent off one of the Chelsea subs (88mins) for blatantly upsetting Pedro. Welbeck stabbed in very late before going home time (97mins) to make the score look as if we had really tried very hard. De Zerbi said he didn't like the Ref, which covered up what he might have said about us going through the motions in this weak end of season affair. We were never gonna hand out a beating because we can't keep clean sheets and have lost the plot when it comes to out-scoring opposition. The run-in has turned into a disaster with; dld llw dl - F4 A14. That's the be all and end of it this term for what it's worth. stats: ht 0-1, goals 97-34,64, poss 53%-47%, on target 2-6, off target 9-7, corners 4-6, fouls 14-13, yellows 2-2, red 0-1, subs 5-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: mild . gate: tba . MoM: ? team: 1 Verbruggen 2 Lamptey 4 Webster 5 Dunk 3 Julio 40 Buonanotte 11 Gilmour 13 Gross 24 Adingra 10 Enciso 9 Pedro subs: 19 Barco 45 (5), 18 Welbeck 70 (40), 20 Baleba 70 (11), 31 Fati 85 (10), 42 Offiah 85 (2) bench: 23 Steele 14 Lallana 15 Moder 65 Atom squad: McGill (gk). injured: 6 Milner 7 March 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson 29 van Hecke 30 Estupinan 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood Prem P37 . W8 D6 L4 . F30 A25 . W4 D6 L9 . F25 A35 . Pt48 Po10 = 1.29pt/gm . W = 32.4% L = 35.1% Blues: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% total: 38 . 18 09 11 . 77 63 14 . 63 06 = 1.65 . 47.3 28.9 3qtr: 29 . 12 07 10 . 53 50 03 . 43 10 = 1.48 . 41.3 34.4 hfwy: 19 . 07 04 08 . 31 29 02 . 25 10 = 1.31 . 36.8 42.1 start: 10 . 03 03 04 . 13 11 02 . 12 11 = 1.20 . 30.0 40.0 - M Pochettino EFL Cup: Liverpool L 0-1 final, Middlesbro 6-1 (H) 1-0 (A) s-f, Newcastle 4pen2 1-1 (H) q-f, Blackburn 2-0 (H) R4, Brighton 1-0 (H) R3, Wimbledon 2-1 (H) R2 FA Cup: Man City 1-0 s-f, Leicester 4-2 (H) q-f, Leeds 3-2 (H) R5, Villa 1-3 (A) 0-0 (H) R4, Preston 4-0 (H) R3 Oct: 11th in table, 1pt off 10th at Q1. Dec: 10th, 6pts from 7th at Q2. Mar: 11th, 1pt off 10th at Q3. May: finished 6th, 3pts from 5th at Q4. 23/24 odds at start: title 12/1, top four 11-8, top six 4-9 . sack MP 25/1 . expected to finish: top six run in from 30/3/24: Burnley 2-2 (H), Man Utd 4-3 (H), Sheff Utd 2-2 (A), Everton 6-0 (H), Arsenal 5-0 (A), Villa 2-2 (A), Spurs 2-0 (H), West Ham 5-0 (H), Forest 2-3 (A), Brighton 1-2 (A), B'mouth 2-1 (H) run in forecast @ 29/3/24: 39pt > 55pts . max was 72 . Actual = 63 . Po was 11th . Actual po = 6th Season12, 6th Premier League (H) Sat 29/10/22 - W 4-1 ~ Trossard, og 2, Gross First of all; welcome back Graham Potter & staff. Long time no see - well since you left us in early Sept anyway. Brighton fans may recall Albion getting badly beat by Blues here in Jan '18 during our initial Prem campaign when survival was utmost (see scroll below). It had since been a steep learning curve, made more difficult to climb when facing top-six outfits like Chelsea, Man City & Liverpool. Then for subsequent seasons various Albion teams had performed better against the big southwest London club, although yet to record a single victory against them at the Amex. We'd lost a second time in Dec '18 before gaining a first point in Jan '20. There followed a third reversal in Sept '20 then a second draw in Jan '22 (seasons 7-11). Perhaps with the upgraded squad ex-coach Graham Potter had assembled from last term a win was now possible. Chelsea spent 140m by start of the season. But sacked their manager in first week of September. Potter was invited there straight away and very quickly took this big job on. Albion head coach now was Roberto de Zerbi and the Italian was feeling his way into Prem culture, understanding this elite English game and how to make in-play tactical decisions. So far he'd overseen merely 2pts acquired out of 15 available in October to date. His challenge was to turn good displays, reasonable levels, fair performances and tactical game-plans into positive points returns. However, one problem was evident; he hadn't solved the goal-scoring conundrum of a group that historically didn't find the net enough to establish as regular winners. *** match report: no matter what stats showed prior to kickoff Albion achieved a first victory versus Blues and scored twice ourselves. From the off it was pedal to the metal as hosts pressed visitors high up the pitch using man to man marking. Suddenly the away end was under siege with locals attempts peppering the goalmouth. Trossard went round the keeper for the first (5mins). Then a March corner also got stuck in the net off a defenders boot (14mins). Just before halftime a second og was registered following a run & centre by Estupinan (42min). Immediately on turnaround visitors pegged one back from a free header (48mins). But their efforts to reduce deficit were soaked up by blue & white defensive shape plus super skills between the sticks from Sanchez. De Zerbi introduced Enciso on debut off the bench and also regular impact sub Lamptey to worry the toiling metropolitan outfit. Sarmiento got a rare outing too late in the afternoon. Gross bagged a fourth for Seagulls at the death, smacking in a rebound when Enciso's shot was parried (92mins). Brighton fans were loud & proud, De Zerbi also very happy to be collecting three points and the squad pleased they'd raised their game at the Amex. We have to report there was some booing of Potter at kickoff and fellow went-away Cucurella during play. There certainly was passion on three sides of the stadium spilling over the home technical area. RdZ said; 'I am thankful to have found these players and this club. They had confidence in me. It has been difficult to win people over without the results.' So October ended with 5pts gained out of a possible 18 max. But there surely was optimism for the future in watching development of this Seagulls squad thru next year - after a long pause for World Cup finals throughout much of November & December. Time would indeed tell. stats: ht 3-0, goals 5,14,42,92-48, poss 41%-59%, on 9-7, off 7-5, blocks 3-3, corners 8-7, o/s 0-0, tackles 17-8, fouls 16-6, yellows 1-2, subs 3-5, shape 4231-3421 weather: dry & warm . gate: 31,746 away 3007 . MoM: Sanchez - top keeping. team: 1 Sanchez 13 Gross 4 Webster 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 7 March 10 Mac Allister 25 Caicedo 22 Mitoma 14 Lallana 11 Trossard. subs: 20 Enciso 65 (14), 2 Lamptey 73 (22), 19 Sarmiento 87 (11) bench: 23 Steele 21 Undav 27 Gilmour 43 Turns 47 Furlong 49 Moran injured: 34 Veltman . ill: 18 Welbeck . rehab: 15 Moder . squad: 6 Colwill Prem: P12 . W3 D2 L1 . F10 A4. W2 D1 L3 . F9 A11 . Pt18 Po8 = 1.50pt/gm . W = 41.6% L = 33.3% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% total: 38 . 11 11 16 . 38 47 -09 . 44 12 = 1.15 . 28.9 42.1 - F Lampard 3qtrs: 29 . 10 09 10 . 29 30 -01 . 39 11 = 1.34 . 34.4 34.4 hfwy: 19 . 08 04 07 . 22 21 01 . 28 10 = 1.47 . 42.1 36.8 - G Potter start: 10 . 06 02 02 . 15 10 05 . 20 4 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 - G Potter & T Tuchel Champ Lg: q-f - R Madrid 0-2 (H) 2-0 (A) . 16 - B Dortmund 2-0 (H) 1-0 (A) gp - AC Milan 0-2 (A) 3-0 (H), Saltzburg 1-2 (A) 1-1 (H), D Zagreb 2-1 (H) 1-0 (A). EFL Cup: Man City 2-0 (A) R3. FA Cup: Man City 4-0 (A) R3. Oct: 4th in table, 4pts off 3rd at Q1. Manager sacked in early Sept. Potter hired. Jan: 10th, 1pt off 8th at halfway stage Q2. Apr: 11th, 9pts above 12th at three quarters stage Q3. Potter sacked. May: 12th, 8pts behind 10th at Q4. 22/23 odds at start: title 16/1, top four 4-6 . Sack TT 12/1 . Expected to finish: in top four at least. Run in from 8/4/23: Wolves 1-0 (A), Brighton 1-2 (H), Brentford 0-2 (H), Arsenal 3-1 (A), B'mouth 1-3 (A), Forest 2-2 (H), Man City 1-0 (A), Man Utd 4-1 (A), Newcastle 1-1 (H) Run in forecast @ 7/4/23: 39pt > 51pts . Max was 66 . Actual = 44 . Po was 11th . Actual po = 12th Season11, 5th Premier League (H) Tue 18/1/22 - 1-1 ~ Webster. This fixture was brought forward from originally scheduled on 8/2/22 due to Chelsea's commitments in the Club World Cup. So it was now merely three weeks since we'd last played Blues, up at their place between Xmas & New Year. Four previous Albion results here versus these big-six metropolitan giants required improvement from our fifth straight meeting . The basic problem was how to stop them scoring, while we went in search of netting attempts ourselves. Our available strikers thus far had actually been reduced in the January transfer window when Connolly went out on loan. So goals would need to come from other positions to supplement lack of options. In rearguard Dunk was back training after a long term injury. Webster took the armband on this night. Meanwhile Chelsea still had many irons in the fire and recently got thru to the EFL Cup final by beating Spurs - incidentally these other London elitists being our next FAC R4 opponents away in a few weeks. Blues were chasing a Prem podium spot and for obvious reasons represented a tough nut to crack - given we could now find the heavy hammer from somewhere. * match report: Albion came from behind yet again to gain a point - the 7th from 8 draws where we'd conceded first. Against initial run of play visitors beat Sanchez with a low drive from distance (28min). Hosts then piled on pressure but couldn't find the net. After turnaround Seagulls pushed for a leveller and Potter soon had early subs lined up to bolster attack. On the hour mark Webster headed in a Mac A corner and so it was game on (60min). Blues upped the ante to get another one but locals did the necessary work to prevent possible defeat. The contest hung in balance but was entertaining for home and away support, press/media coverage and numerous neutrals watching on pay tv. Stats racked up at both ends, while in truth both keepers weren't unduly bothered by extra goalmouth action. The performance was good overall from BHA and Potter very proud of his squad at the final whistle. Brighton fans had plenty to shout about and nearly lifted the roof off when levelling scores versus strong opposition. Improvement was apparent compared to previous campaigns - going toe to toe got us a point we'd otherwise have failed to register as a bottom six outfit. And at long last a defender bagged us a goal in an all round pukka team performance. Onward and upward. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 60-28, poss 43%-57%, on target 2-3, off target 8-12, corners 5-7, fouls 8-5, yellows 1-2, subs 3-3, shape 4123-4231. weather: cold & still . gate: 30,880 (away 3103) . MoM: Webster - local hero. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 4 Webster (C), 33 Burn Y, 3 Cucurella, 13 Gross (9 Maupay 62), 17 Alzate, 10 Mac Allister, 2 Lamptey (20 March 76), 15 Moder, 18 Welbeck (11 Trossard 62) . bench: 16 Scherepen (gk), 38 McGill (gk), 25 Caicedo, 28 Roberts, 42 Leonard, 58 Ferguson. squad: 55 Turns . injured: 5 Dunk, 12 Mwepu, 14 Lallana, 24 Duffy. Prem: P21 . W3 D5 L3 . F10 A11 . W3 D6 L1 . F12 A11 . Pt29 Po9 = 1.38pt/gm . W = 28.5% L = 19.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 21 11 06 . 76 33 43 . 74 3 = 1.94 . 55.2 15.7 3qtrs: 29 . 17 08 04 . 58 23 35 . 59 3 = 2.03 . 58.3 13.7 Hfwy: 19 . 12 05 02 . 42 13 29 . 41 3 = 2.15 . 63.1 10.5 Start: 10 . 08 01 01 . 26 03 23 . 25 1 = 2.50 . 80.0 10.0 - Thomas Tuchel Ch Lg: R Madrid 1-3 (H) 2-3 (A) q-f . Lille 2-0 (H) 1-2 (A) 16 . Juve 1-0 (A) 4-0 (H), Zenit 1-0 (H) 3-3 (A), Malmo 4-0 (H) 0-1 (A) gp. Club World Cup: Palmeiras 2-1 aet (1-1) final . Al Hilal 0-1 s-f. EFL Cup: Liverpool L 10pen11 0-0 aet final . Spurs 0-1 (A) 2-0 (H) s-f . Brentford 0-2 (A) q-f, Southampton 4pen3 1-1 (H) R4, Villa 4pen3 1-1 (H) R3. FA Cup: Liverpool L 5pen6 0-0 final . Palace 2-0 s-f . Middlesbro 0-2 (A) q-f . Luton 2-3 (A) R5 . Plymouth 2-1 (H) R4 . Chesterfield 5-1 (H) R3. Oct: top of table and 3pts clear at Q1. Jan: 3rd, 6pts behind top place at halfway stage Q2. Mar: World Club champs, EFL Cup finalists. FA Cup & Ch Lg q-fs. 3rd, 13pts off 2nd at threequarters Q3. May: finshed 3rd 74pts, 18pts off 2nd. FA Cup finalists. Season10, 4th Premier League (H) Mon 14/9/20 - L 1-3 ~ Trossard. Covid restrictions: no fans allowed. Albion hosted the first 'crowd' attended test event with a friendly against Chelsea in late August. 2500 were allowed into the Amex, following all mandatory coronavirus protocols & precautions implemented both inside & out. Graham Potter fielded virtually all his then current squad over course of ninety minutes. These included players previously sent out on loan; Ben White, Chris Walton, Max Sanders & Jayson Molumby. This Prem fixture was our first of the season, albeit a month later than usual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which delayed completion of the previous Prem campaign until late July. The evening match was played behind closed doors without fans attending. Albion were hoping to make further progress this term, whether against big-six sides or the rest, which meant scoring many more goals. The rare example that secured a point here last season was a much replayed one-off (see season9 below). But now, as devised via orthodox (if slightly concentrated) coaching methods, Graham Potter needed all his front men to hit the net much more regularly. On immediate July conclusion of last season, Kayal, Schelotto and Knockaert (15m) left the club. Balogun had already gone in June. Montoya & Mooy (4m) departed for foreign climes in August. Seagulls signed Adam Lallana on a free from Liverpool and Joel Veltman for about 1m from Ajax at start of the revised close season. Ben White was added to the squad, BHA having turned down big offers from Leeds. But Duffy & Murray went out on seasons loans. Button (1m) also left the keepers group a week before the new campaign got under way in mid Sept. Clearly BHA were now a selling club in view of various ongoing circumstances. * match report: Albion lost this opener but did score a goal. Blues opened scoring from the spot after Ryan bought down an attacker (23min). Lallana had to go off injured just prior to halftime. Trossard equalised early in the second half (54m) with a low dive but visitors soon went ahead again from a worldy (56m). They sewed it up after the hour mark with a poke that deflected past Ryan (66m). Potter put on Jahanbakhsh & Gross late in the day but it was a token as Seagulls were merely flapping by then. Potter thought the result was harsh, although we'd let in three and missed chances up the other end. It was history repeating from last season and stay-home Brighton fans wondered where goals were coming from this term. Only time would tell in the long run. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 54-23,56,66, poss 52%-48%, on target 3-5, off target 10-5, corners 4-3, fouls 8-13, yellows 1-0, subs 3-3. Weather: fine evening. Team: 1 Ryan, 2 Lamptey Y, 3 White (16 Jahanbakhsh 79), 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 20 March, 8 Bissouma, 17 Alzate (13 Gross 79), 14 Lallana (7 Connolly 45), 9 Maupay, 11 Trossard . Bench: 23 Steele, 33 Burn, 34 Veltman, 6 Stephens. Squad: 10 Mac Allister, 26 Sanchez, 41 Sanders, 49 Molumby . Injured: 19 Izquierdo, 21 Andone, 24 Propper, 31 Walton . MoM: Lamptey. Prem: P1 . W0 D0 L1 . F1 A3 . W0 D0 L0 . F0 A0 . Pt0 Po16 = 0.00pt/gm. Wins = 0%, Loss = 100% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 19 10 09 . 58 36 22 . 67 4 = 1.76 . 50.0 23.6 3qtrs: 29 . 14 09 06 . 44 25 19 . 51 4 = 1.75 . 48.2 20.6 - T Tuchel Hfwy: 19 . 08 05 06 . 33 23 10 . 29 9 = 1.52 . 42.1 31.5 - F Lampard. Start: 10 . 05 04 01 . 22 10 12 . 19 3 = 1.90 . 50.0 10.0 - F Lampard. Champions League: final w 0-1 Man C . s-f - R Madrid 1-1 (A) 2-0 (H) . q-f - Porto 0-2 (A) 0-1 (H) . 16 - A Madrid 0-1 (A) 2-0 (H) . group - Sevilla 0-0 (H) 0-4 (A), Krasnodar 0-4 (A) 1-1 (H), Rennes 3-0 (H) 1-2 (A). EFL Cup: Spurs 5pen4 (1-1) (A) R4, Barnsley 6-0 (H) R3. FA Cup: Leicester L 0-1 final, Man City 1-0 s-f, Sheff U 2-0 (H) q-f, Barnsley 0-1 (A) R5, Luton 3-1 (H) R4, Morecambe 4-0 (H) R3. Nov: at end of the first quarter, Chelsea were 3rd in the Prem table, 2pts behind top two. Jan: at the halfway stage Blues slipped to 9th and sacked Lampard. Mar: threequarters completed and 4th, in range of the podium under Tuchel. May: Prem 4th in a three way fight, FA Cup finalists, Champions League winners. Season9, 3rd Premier League (H) Wed 1/1/20 - 1-1 ~ Jahanbakhsh. Another brand new year dawned at Falmer and by today's lunchtime the next PL kickoff had already arrived. Our EFL starting-over back at Withdean in Y2k actually seemed so much more than two whole decades ago. The lost generation of fans from that very late traumatic twentieth century League Two past had recovered sufficient numbers now to regularly sell out the Amex. And also rival those big crowds seen at the old Goldstone Ground during our glory Div1&2 years of yore. Chelsea had once visited Hove for an FA Cup tie there back in the day and huge queues for tickets were endless... go ask grandad. Albion did hold one ongoing record though; we'd never beaten Blues during our very few years total in the top div. Anyway thoughts had immediately turned to the transfer window and whether new faces would arrive to make second half of this campaign one to remember for all the right reasons. Albion had a proposed mission to be a top ten club in future, which couldn't be undertaken without improvement in personnel & Prem skills. Our third PL campaign in lower reaches had to deliver progression from now until May, or be written off again as just surviving in the elite... until time eventually runs out due to law of averages. * match report: Albion grabbed a point late in the afternoon with a sensational overhead kick by sub Jahanbakhsh following a corner (84min). Blues bossed first half exchanges and led from a scramble in hosts area early doors (10min). Burn went off injured (broken collar bone) to be replaced by Bernardo (22min). Potter changes things around after the interval when introducing Connolly and switching to 433. Seagulls gradually got into the game and a further alteration from Jahanbakhsh arriving reshaped again to 442. He became hero of the Amex when scoring and BHA then duly went in search of the winner. Chelsea hung on to their point and Brighton fans went home fairly happy to have avoided another beating. It wasn't exactly a classic but hopefully enough evidence displayed to encourage thinking that things were still moving in the right direction against yet more strong opposition. 2020 was here now and we all had to take those positives going forwards. stats: shape 4312-433, ht 0-1, goals 10-84, poss 48%-52%, on target 5-5, off target 7-7, blocks 4-4, corners 5-3, o/s 0-3, fouls 8-15, yellows 2-3, subs 3-2 . MoM - Jahanbakhsh . Gate - 30,559, away 2988 . Weather - dry but grey. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk Y, 33 Burn (30 Bernardo 22), 8 Bissouma (44 Connolly 46), 24 Propper, 46 Alzate, 18 Mooy (16 Jahanbakhsh 68), 11 Trossard, 7 Maupay Y . Subs - 27 Button, 4 Duffy, 6 Stephens, 13 Gross. Squad - 3 Bong, 14 Balogun, 17 Murray, 21 Schelotto, 14 Balogun . Injured - 19 Izquierdo, 20 March. Prem: P21 . W4 D4 L3 . F15 A11 . W2 D2 L6 . F9 A17 . Pt24 Po14 = 1.14pt/gm. Wins = 28.5%, Loss = 42.85% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 20 6 12 . 69 54 15 . 66 4 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 - F Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 3qtrs: 29 . 14 6 09 . 51 39 12 . 48 4 = 1.65 . 48.2 31.0 PREM SUSPENDED Hfwy: 19 . 10 2 07 . 33 27 06 . 32 4 = 1.68 . 52.6 36.8 Start: 10 . 06 2 02 . 23 16 07 . 20 4 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 - F Lampard. Champions League: Last 16 - B Munich 0-3 (H) 4-1 (A). Group - Ajax 0-1 (A) 4-4 (H), Valencia 2-2 (A) 0-1 (H), Lille 1-2 (A) 2-1 (H). EFL Cup: 4th rnd - Man utd 1-2 (H), 3rd rnd - Grimsby 7-1 (H) FA Cup: Arsenal L 2-1 final, Man Utd W 3-1 s-f, Leicester 0-1 (A) q-f, Liverpool 2-0 (H) R5, Hull 1-2 (A) R4, Forest 2-0 (H) R3. Aug: held up in congested mid table with a whole host of others having negative goal difference. Oct: improved to grab a top four slot by end of first quarter Q1. New Year: holds on to fourth slot, qual for last 16 of Ch Lg and in FAC4 draw. March: 4th place when PL suspended. Into FAC last eight. July: Top four and in Champions League, FAC finalists to boot. Season8 2nd Premier League (H) Sunday 16/12/18 - L 1-2 ~ March. The calendar year was drawing to a close and financial results had been published for last (17/18) season, where BHA had made a small profit (11m) for being part of the Prem money-making elite. On the field It was the middle of a hetic month, prior to reaching halfway thru the season just after Xmas. This fixture got moved back from Saturday due to visitors ongoing participation in the Europa League. Albion hoped to avoid a thrashing like last term and perhaps take something from a top six side at the Amex. Home form this campaign so far versus big clubs was; Man Utd 3-2 & Spurs 1-2, so things were finely balanced for Blues visit. In fact Spurs was the only domestic loss, as the record showed, W4 D2 L1 F12 A8 = 2.00pt/gm. And things were set fair for a competitve contest with goals at both ends. Whether Albion could halt visitors free scoring attack was open to conjecture but no doubt detailed defensive drills had been put into effect on Seagulls training pitch during the week beforehand. * match report: All that planning beforehand went out of the Amex window during the first half. After a start that flattered to deceive, Seagulls went a goal behind at visitors very quick attack (17min). A little later they were two down from giving the ball away and being counter-attacked one on one (33min). Hughton shook his lacklustre side up at the break and it's true to say BHA took the game to the London outfit for most of the second period. Andone came on around the hour mark and hosts scored soon afterwards. A deep cross from Gross got headed down by Bernardo and March netted a rare strike (66min). Bissouma & Locadia came on to up the ante but it kinda all fizzled out at the death. Hughton said, 'the goals knocked us and it became an uphill battle. You need to have a good team performance and we did get to grips better in the second half.' Brighton fans were hopeful of maybe snatching a point but in all honesty the team was always chasing the game, no matter how much fans screamed & shouted. Blues were too classy and left us feeling a little, well, blue... but definitely red faced. Stats; shape 451-433, h-t 0-2, goals 66-17,33, poss 42%-58%, on target 2-3, off target 3-4, corners 4-1, o/s 5-4, fouls 14-6, yellows 2-2, subs 3-3. Gate 30,645, away 3011 . MoM Bernardo . Weather - cloudy & drizzle. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 14 Balogun, 5 Dunk Y, 30 Bernardo, 11 Knockaert (9 Locadia 84), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March, 15 Gross (8 Bissouma 81), 17 Murray (10 Andone 60 Y) . Subs - 23 Steele, 2 Bruno, 3 Bong, 7 Kayal. Prem P17 . W4 D2 L2 . F13 A10 . W2 D1 L6 . F7 A14 . Pt21 Po13 = 1.23pt/m. Wins = 35.2%, Loss = 47.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 21 09 08 . 63 39 24 . 72 3 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 - M Sarri 3qtrs; 29 . 17 06 06 . 50 31 19 . 57 6 = 1.96 . 58.6 20.6 Hfwy; 19 . 12 04 03 . 37 16 21 . 40 4 = 2.10 . 63.1 15.7 - M Sarri. Start; 10 . 07 03 00 . 24 07 17 . 24 3 = 2.40 . 70.0 00.0 Europa League; final - beat Arsenal 4-1, s-f - Eintracht 1-1 (A) 4pen3 1-1aet (H), q-f - Slavia 0-1 (A) 4-3 (H), 16 - Kylv 3-0 (H) 0-5 (A), 32 - Malmo 1-2 (A), 3-0 (H). Group stage - Salonika 0-1 (A) 4-0 (H), Vidi 1-0 (H) 2-2 (A), Borisov 3-1 (H) 0-1 (A) EFL Cup; losing finalists - Man City 0-0 aet 3-4 pens, s-f - Spurs 1-0 (A) 4-2 pens 2-1 (H), q-f - Bournemouth 1-0 (H), 4th rnd - Derby 3-2 (H), 3rd rnd - Liverpool 1-2 (A) FA Cup; 5th rnd - Man Utd 0-2 (H), 4th rnd - Sheff Wed 3-0 (H), 3rd rnd - Forest 2-0 (H) Aug; another new start in many respects, need to hit the ground running in order to challenge for PL 1-4 and by definition EL/CL progress. October; in top four and unbeaten during first quarter stats. Europa Lg going well. New Year; top four berth without actually stepping onto the podium. EFL & FA Cup progress. March; in a four way scrap for third. Europa Lg q-f. EFL Cup finalists. Season7 1st Premier League (H) 20/1/18 - L 0-4. Albion went to London on Boxing Day and this reciprocal fixture was that odd one which reoccurred within a month. During first half of the season Seagulls hosted Man City (0-2) on opening day and in early December crashed to Liverpool (1-5). Blues were the third top six team to visit and the campaign would later draw to a protracted close by staging games versus Arsenal, Spurs & Man Utd between early March and thru to beginning of May. Points at the Amex were fundamental to survival in the PL and thus far 15pt of the 23pt tally to date were gained there. Since September Seagulls had just about averaged a point per game and thus required a draw to maintain parity. *** match report: Albion lost the game in the first five minutes when they just didn't turn up. A revised 532 shape by hosts was easily opened up like a can of worms twice during an opening blitz by current champions (3 & 6 min). Ref turned down two pen appeals by Schelotto in the first half and Seagulls also hit the woodwork during the second period. But stats told the true story and despite an all round effort by the starting eleven and 3 subs, Albion failed to score. They then conceded two late goals to compound failure against another top-six side (77 & 89 min). Hughton said, 'we had some really good periods but the difference was the penalty appeals.' Brighton fans could see it was a mismatch and same old stuff at end of the day in the final thirds. The squad appeared lightweight and was basically that which were given a chance to prove themselves in the PL. Writing was now on the Amex wall for a relegation battle until death or glory. A way had to be found to score goals and players proving capable of doing so. Surviving this campaign as a Prem club was now in real doubt. Stats; shape 532-343, ht 0-2, goals 3,6,77,89, poss 42%-58%, on target 3-10, off target 5-1, blocks 2-3, crosses 29-10, corners 5-3, o/s 4-0, tackles 11-12, fouls 12-5, yellows 3-0, subs 3-3 . Gate 30,600 (away 3028) 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 18 Goldson, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 29 Suttner, 13 Gross (7 Kayal), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March (19 Izquierdo), 10 Hemed (17 Murray). P24 . W5 D8 L11 . F17 A33 . Pt23 Po16 = 0.95pt/gm . Wins = 20.8%, Loss = 45.8% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 21 07 10 . 62 38 24 . 70 5 = 1.84 . 55.5 26.3 - Antonio Conte. 3qtrs; 29 . 16 05 08 . 50 26 24 . 53 5 = 1.82 . 55.1 27.5 Hfwy; 19 . 12 03 04 . 32 14 18 . 39 3 = 2.05 . 63.1 21.0 Start; 10 . 06 01 03 . 18 10 08 . 19 4 = 1.90 . 60.0 30.0 Aug - every chance of a title challenge and long runs in both Cups, plus kick on to later stages of the Champions League. New Year - a podium place likely and are still in Cups. March - in the mix for top four position. EFL Cup Semi-finalist. FA Cup Q-F. Champions League last 16. CHELSEA away; Prem. Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 24/25 - 1 0 0 . 6 2 4 . 3 11 = 3.00 75.0 . 100.0 00.0 - Enzo Maresca @ 13/9/24 23/24 - 07 5 7 . 33 37 -04 . 26 06 = 1.36 41.2 . 36.8 36.8 - Mauricio Pochettino 22/23 - 5 4 10 . 18 28 -10 . 19 12 = 1.00 43.1 . 26.3 52.6 - Lampard, Potter & Tuchel 21/22 - 12 4 3 . 39 11 28 . 40 03 = 2.10 54.0 . 63.1 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel 20/21 - 10 4 5 . 21 12 09 . 34 04 = 1.78 50.7 . 52.6 26.3 - Frank Lampard & Thomas Tuchel. 19/20 - 09 3 7 . 38 37 01 . 30 04 = 1.57 45.4 . 47.3 36.8 - Frank Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 09 3 7 . 24 27 -3 .. 30 03 = 1.57 41.6 . 47.3 36.8 - Maurizio Sarri. 17/18 - 10 3 6 . 32 22 10 . 33 05 = 1.73 47.1 . 52.6 31.5 - Antonio Conte. 16/17 - 13 3 3 . 30 16 14 . 42 01 = 2.21 45.1 . 68.4 15.7 - Antonio Conte. 15/16 - 07 5 7 . 27 23 04 . 26 10 = 1.36 52.0 . 36.8 36.8 - J Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. 14/15 - 11 5 3 . 37 23 14 . 38 01 = 2.00 43.6 . 57.8 15.7 - Jose Mourinho. 13/14 - 10 4 5 . 28 16 12 . 34 03 = 1.78 41.4 . 52.6 26.3 - Jose Mourinho. CHELSEA PREVIOUS PREM; podiums; 21/22 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 18/19 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 16/17 - Chelsea, Spurs, Man City . 14/15 - Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal. 13/14 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 12/13 - Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea. Prem points: 64, 75, 82, 87, 50, 93, 70, 72, 66 / 67, 74, 44, 63 recent managers; Thomas Tuchel (21-22), Frank Lampard (19-21), Maurizio Sarri (18-19), Antonio Conte (16-18), Guus Hiddink (2016), Jose Mourinho (13-15), Rafa Benitez (12-13), Roberto de Matteo (2012), Andre Villas Boas (11-12). Mauricio Pochettino (23-24) . Experience: top of the range coach, with a decent record in Europe too. Frank Lampard (interim) . Experience: ex-Everton short-term boss latest. Graham Potter (22-23) . Experience: ex-Albion head coach with limited top flight time. Thomas Tuchel (21-22) - P93 W = 61.2% @ July '22 . Experience: top head coach in Germany & France. Frank Lampard (19-21) - W = 52.7% @ Aug '20 . Experience: rookie Prem boss who was an ex-England & Blues stalwart. Seasn . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 23/24 - 18 09 11 . 77 63 14 . 63 6 = 1.65 . 47.3 28.9 - Mauriccio Pochettino @ 20/5/24 Finished strongly from mid div but manager parted company with the club at their zenith. 22/23 - 11 11 16 . 38 47 -9 . 44 12 = 1.15 . 28.9 42.1 - Frank Lampard @ 28/5/23 The basket case of the division and got thu 3 coaches to stay in mid table for their worst finish since Jose & Guss in '16. 21/22 - 21 11 6 . 76 33 43 .. 74 3 = 1.94 . 55.2 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel @ 22/5/22 Well adrift of top two at the death in a campaign tainted by sanctions against the owner, Russian oligarch Abramovich. 20/21 - 19 10 9 . 58 36 22 .. 67 4 = 1.76 . 50.0 23.6 - Thomas Tuchel & Frank Lampard @ 24/5/21 Got to top four and a Champions League place soon after losing FA Cup finalists. 19/20 - 20 6 12 . 69 54 15 .. 66 4 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 - Frank Lampard. PL SUSPENDED, complete @ 27/7/20 Good results from manager & squad in transition. Made the top four and a Champions League spot. 18/19 - 21 9 08 . 63 39 24 .. 72 3 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 - Maurizio Sarri. Third place from a four way contest, secured a Champions League spot next term, albeit winning the Europa League qualified as well. 17/18 - 21 7 10 . 62 38 24 .. 70 5 = 1.84 . 55.5 26.3 - Antonio Conte. Turned around an ailing squad to make them champions in his first year. Charismatic & clever the extrovert little Italian didn't really excel following those earlier assessments. 16/17 - 30 3 05 . 85 33 52 .. 93 1 = 2.44 . 78.9 13.1 - Antonio Conte. Change at Stamford Bridge had positive influences and anticipation was for stability plus success (AC spoke English well after just a few months). In the event cause & effect produced another title. 15/16 - 12 14 12 . 59 53 6 . 50 10 = 1.31 . 31.5 31.5 - Jose Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. Even a person not familiar with usual pecking order of the elite realised something had gone wrong this term. JM 'jumped ship' at end of the year and Guus Hiddink came in once more to calm waters. But seeing the final table was almost suspending disbelief. 14/15 - 26 9 03 . 73 32 41 .. 87 1 = 2.28 . 68.4 07.8 - Jose Mourinho. The SW6 outfit started favourite to win the title and mean & moody JM didn't disappoint pundits & punters alike for the second time around. Oh, also won the League Cup to boot. 13/14 - 25 7 06 . 71 27 44 .. 82 3 = 2.15 . 65.7 15.7 - Jose Mourinho. This season was all about Jose Mourinho in his first camaign back for Blues since 2007, albeit by his own special, exacting standards a third place finish went so close - but no cigar. 12/13 - 22 9 07 . 75 39 36 .. 75 3 = 1.97 . 57.8 18.4 11/12 - 18 10 10 65 46 19 .. 64 6 = 1.68 . 47.3 26.3 FA CUP from 11/12; winners, s-f, 5th rnd, 4th, q-f, runners-up, winners, 5th, runners-up, runners-up, runners-up, 3rd, s-f. LEAGUE CUP; 5th rnd, s-f, 5th, winners, 4th rnd, 4th, s-f, runners up, 4th, 4th, runners up, 3rd, runners up. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE; winners, gp, s-f, last 16, last 16, nq, last 16, nq, last 16, winners, q-f, q-f, nq. EUROPA LEAGUE; nq, winners, nq, nq, nq, nq, nq, winners, nq, nq, nq. * * * * * Falmer years - 2011 to 2017, no meetings Withdean Era - 1999 to 2011, no meetings H&A.
Chelsea - Away, Falmer Years: Prem 17/18-24/25, seasons 7-14 . . EFL Cup '23 Chelsea v Albion (A) from 17/18: 2-0 3-0 2-0 0-0 1-1 1-2 3-2 . . W = 1 D = 2 L = 4 . F5 A12 scorers: Welbeck 2 Enciso Buonanotte Pedro. memorable match: Season10 (A) - dug in when desperation required at very least a clean sheet. note: for home Falmer Years results & reports scroll further up. Season14, 8th Premier League (A) Sat 28/9/24 - tba Chelsea qualified for the revised Europa Conference League format after a relatively successful campaign in 23/24. They were runners up in the EFL Cup and s-f contestants in the FA Cup last term. Blues pre-season friendlies; US tour: Wrexham 2-2, Celtic l 1-4, Club America w 3-0, Man City l 2-4, R Madrid l 1-2. Then I Milan 1-1 (H). This Prem fixture was the 3rd of 19 away, coming midway thru the 10 game first quarter (Q1). The reverse game was 15 Feb '25 in mid season (Q2-3) - see home scroll further above. We had lost both matches last season during Dec '23 (A) & May '24 (H) and also earlier in the League Cup here during Sept '23. Last year we'd met during early December when on the wrong side of a five goal contest. We finished 11th 48pts, while Ch'sea were 6th 63pts. Now we had xpts and they had xpts in this opening phase. Our Prem record at Stamford Bridge versus Blues was; lll ddw l - in all seven seasons to date. Only one win from a scant sequence overall. They were a big club with revamped ongoing expectations as usual. Current away form was; W D L F A tba. Hosts home form was: W D L F A tba. At the moment Brighton were xth, while Chelsea were xth from 5 games played. In the last three campaigns we'd been placed 8, 8 & 7 after the start period (Q1). Albion were looking to avoid suffering a second successive defeat in SW London. Ch'sea had 8 players at Euro 24 finals in Germany during June. Blues were now tba drawn against 8 European clubs in the Europa Conf League. Their latest boss Enzo Maresca had spent around 228m on 11 new talents, plus an on loan player prior to the big kickoff and before the August window shut. In the EFL Cup .... Headline news this week was ...tba * match report: tba day after result stats: ht , goals , poss %-%, on target , off target , corners , fouls , yellows , subs , shape weather: . gate: . MoM: team: 23 Steele 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 24 Adingra 27 Wieffer 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck subs: bench: 1 Verbruggen 3 Julio 4 Webster 6 Milner 9 Pedro 15 Moder 16 Sarmiento 20 Baleba 22 Mitoma 26 Ayari 28 Ferguson 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood squad: . injured: 7 March Prem P6 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Season13, 7th Premier League (A) Sun 3/12/23 - L 3-2 ~ Buonanotte, Pedro Brighton played Chelsea in Philadelphia as part of the PL Summer Series held in America during July '23. In a goal fest it was Blues who won 4-3 in front of a 65k+ crowd. The West London outfit next drew against Newcastle 1-1 & beat Fulham 2-0. Then drew with B Dortmund 1-1 in Chicago. Today this fixture was played following Seagulls fifth Europa League group match, where we'd qualified for k-o rounds. But hosts had failed to qualify for European competition this term so were spared that much busier schedule for once. Albion were 6th (62pts) and the capital unit 12th (44pts) last term, giving us a 18pts +ve difference. Since joining the elite, Brighton had finished 15, 17, 15, 16, 9, 6, while Chelsea were 5, 3, 4, 4, 3, 12. Hosts expected to be repositioned in European qualifying places by next May. Our Prem record at Stamford Bridge versus Blues was; lll ddw in six seasons to date. Three initial defeats stand out. Getting goals there was a problem we'd latterly hoped to have solved. Going into this early December match BHA were 8th and Chelsea were 10th from 13 played to date. They'd gotten in a brand-new manager at start of their campaign to help regain top six status. They had also spent 112m in the pre-Aug transfer window on 3 buys inc BHA ex-no.1 Rob Sanchez (25m), plus one undisclosed and one free. The Friday before Saturday's mid Aug opening-day kickoff Moises Caicedo was quoted in a late deal with Liverpool for a Prem record 111m. He'd been Blues main target in pre-season and so they upped their offer to out-bid Reds at 115m. In first 3 weeks of the campaign another 130m got spent on 4 more to bolster their much revised squad. Locals pukka Prem boss Mauricio Pochettino had so far got mixed PL results - but already did get past BHA in their EFL Cup R3 home tie (see below). Based on previous meetings Brighton were now looking for a second straight win at Chelsea. In the week prior to kickoff Albion were awarded freedom of the city of Brighton & Hove for our 600m input to the local economy. * match report: it all ended in heartbreak for travelling support as heavy rain washed away tears from witnessing an under the weather performance. Albion were 2 down inside half an hour to a couple of headers that were both defendable at corners (17 & 21 mins). Just prior to h-t Buonanotte pulled one back with a curling strike (43mins). Then Chelsea had a guy sent off for two bookables and an early bath. After turnaround Seagulls plugged away and De Zerbi put on 4 subs around the hour mark. But we went further behind when Ref went to the monitor and gave Blues a controvertial pen (65mins). Albion finished strongly and Pedro scored in stoppage with a header (92mins). There was still time to level but hosts held out against our late barrage. At the death we'd been beat and versus ten men too. It was tough to take, although we'd given ourselves a mountain to climb from shortly into the first half. Roberto thought Albion were better than opposition and was careful to be diplomatic about Ref, VAR or anything else to get him in more hot water. Brighton fans were understanding of the ongoing injury crisis so appreciated young players stepping into the fray. It was a baptism of fire for several inexperienced players, who could learn a lot in heat of battle. That would bolster squad depth for later when regulars returned fit for selection. Brighton are habitually always competitive and our style of play gives us hope for winning future contests. stats: ht 2-1, goals 17,21,65-45,92, poss 32%-68%, on target 5-9, off target 3-9, corners 5-8, fouls 16-12, yellows 3-5, red 1-0, subs 3-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: rain . gate: 39,647 away 3047 . MoM: Gilmour - lots of effort. team: 23 Steele 34 Veltman 29 van Hecke 3 Julio 41 Hinshelwood 40 Buonanotte 20 Baleba 11 Gilmour 24 Adingra 14 Lallana 28 Ferguson subs: 6 Milner 57 (41), 13 Gross 57 (20), 22 Mitoma 57 (40), 9 Pedro 57 (14), 47 Baker-Boaitey 84 (3) bench: 1 Verbruggen 15 Moder 52 Kavanagh 55 O'Mahony squad: 43 Samuels . ban: 5 Dunk 8 Dahoud . injured: 2 Lamptey 4 Webster 7 March 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck 30 Estupinan 31 Fati Prem P14 . W3 D3 L1 . F15 A10 . W3 D1 L3 . F15 A16 . Pt22 Po8 = 1.57pt/gm . W = 42.8% L = 28.5% Season13, EFL Cup R3 (A) Wed 27/9/23 - L 1-0 Albion entered the all-divisions annual early-season evening-knockout competition at the third round stage due to our participation in the Europa League this term. Bizzarely Blues hadn't qualified for Europe last term and so had already played in the southern section of the EFL Cup at the Bridge, beating Wimbledon 2-1 (H) R2. September was a busy month and Brighton were due in Marseille next midweek, having hosted AEK Athens 2-3 (H) for our initial group B match last Thursday night. In the Prem Albion were currently 3rd but Blues merely 14th after 6 fixtures played thus far. Roberto de Zerbi was rotating the squad from day1 and anticipated starting changes once more tonight. Brighton could posssibly be in 4 competitons at a later date if advancing thru both further League Cup rounds and Europa League group stage. De Zerbi was under no illusions as to degrees of difficulty for these diverse tasks. Everything BHA had achieved seemed to result from facing tough challenges to overcome, as the club realised its ambition as a new force in the elite. And a cup run did seem to register with fans as yet another good idea at this particular moment and so, bring it on! We would play big, bigger, or even super-big clubs in weeks ahead. * match report: it was goalless at halftime and Albion had missed chances to take the lead. We paid for failing to score when Blues netted soon after turnaround (50mins). We were then chasing a result and guess what? Travelling supporters were disappointed, Sussex tv viewers and radio listeners were left frustrated and neutrals wondered why Seagulls drew a blank after all that media hype about how great we were in front of goal. De Zerbi thought we played a good game, which kinda vindicated his starting selections & feeding in of subs. But there was a dearth of regular goal-scorers in play who might get names in papers next day. This tie was part of a learning curve for many players with limited apps, or large games-per-goal numbers (small needed) and/or zero goals records. In these circumstances keeping a clean sheet and nicking it was essential. But alas the ball broke the other way. We required to equalise at least, tho trying to do so just exposed inability to clinically finish attacking moves when competing in a single goal game. Maybe a deadly striker, prolific point or link man occurs naturally. And are worth their weight in gold, well silverware anyway. Brighton struggled to register on targets and/or take advantage of hosts defensive lapses. We certainly didn't have that killer instinct. Or what looked like a natural goal-getter. stats: ht 0-0, goal 50, poss 39%-61%, on target 4-2, off target 5-11, corners 5-8, fouls 6-16, yellows 1-2, subs 4-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: mild . gate: 37,518, away 3936 . MoM: ? - poor performance team: 1 Verbruggen 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 3 Julio 30 Estupinan (C) 8 Dahoud 20 Baleba 40 Buonanotte 31 Fati 22 Mitoma 9 Pedro subs: 7 March 45 (31), 11 Gilmour 64 (20), 18 Welbeck 64 (22), 41 Hinshelwood 70 (8), 14 Lallana 78 (40) bench: 23 Steele 5 Dunk 24 Adingra 34 Veltman squad: 4 Webster 28 Ferguson . injured: 6 Milner 10 Enciso 13 Gross 15 Moder Season12, 6th Premier League (A) Sat 15/4/23 - w 1-2 ~ Welbeck, Enciso. Due to previous postponements this fixture now marked end of the three-quarters stage Q3. Aferwards there were 9 matches left during April & May for the revised run in Q4. Following three straight defeats from our first formative years in the Prem, Seagulls mustered two subsequent basic draws and even notched a goal last term at Stamford Bridge (see away scroll below). We'd lost thrice there in Dec '17, Apr '19 and Sept '19 before parity in Apr '21 and Dec '21 (seasons 7-11). With enforced close-season change of ownership in southwest London, it begged the question; would status quo resume or not? Blues were now backed by big American based money, so they still presented a tough challenge for top-ten candidates like BHA to try and inflict in-play damage upon them. Graham Potter had gone there in Sept '22 (see home scroll above) but it proved very slow work in progress trying to lift the metropolitan giant out of mediocre mid-table Blues. In December under Roberto de Zerbi Albion were at a Dubai winter training camp during '22 WC finals. Since then Seagulls had been flying high in the table. Meanwhile Graham Potter got sacked during the first week of April. So on the face of it, we were now visiting a club left below the Prem pecking order of already occupied top-half places. What could destiny reveal? * match report: goals get scored in football, that's the purpose of the game, however, you don't exactly know how prior to the event. Albion were all over Blues like a crimson rash but it seemed the more we tried to score the less likely for one to happen. Then against run of play hosts netted off a deflected pot-shot (13mins). Seagulls huffed & puffed, losing two men to injuries, before exuding extra goalless efforts almost up to halftime. Welbeck finally got the leveller with a header from Gross' assist aimed to the far post (42mins). It was all Brighton in the second period from turnaround and yet more chances came... and went. Suddenly, in a moment away support shall recall for ever, Enciso unleashed a fizzing strike to the top corner from way down range (69mins). Game management was essential to the end because locals put on pukka prime personnel from the bench worth mega bucks. In contrast travellers subs were make-shift in numbers with PL2 youngsters. In a final push Seagulls tired legs were still attacking at the death. De Zerbi said, 'if we want to become bigger we have to improve in this respect.' So a worldy actually got us the points, the overall performance was up to speed and BHA were still on track to press for our best finish, maybe top six. Brighton fans were living the dream and some. stats: ht 1-1, goals 13-42,69, poss 42%-58%, on 2-10, off 6-16, corners 2-8, fouls 11-11, yellows 2-2, subs 5-3, shape 4231-4231 weather: sunny . gate: 40,126 (3019 away) . MoM: Sanchez - did what he had to. team: 1 Sanchez 34 Veltman 4 Webster 5 Dunk 20 Estupinan 7 March 13 Gross 10 Mac Allister 25 Caicedo 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson. subs: 20 Enciso 28 (34), 18 Welbeck 39 (28), 29 van Hecke 86 (4) bench: 38 McGill (gk) 21 Undav 27 Gilmour 40 Buonanotte 42 Offiah 49 Moran injured: 2 Lamptey 14 Lallana 19 Sarmiento 23 Steele . squad: 15 Moder 26 Ayari (6 Colwill - on loan) Prem: P29 . W7 D3 L4 . F25 A14 . W7 D4 L4 . F29 A23 . Pt49 Po7 = 1.68pt/gm . W = 48.2% L = 27.5% Season11, 5th Premier League (A) Wed 29/12/21 - 1-1 ~ Welbeck. This fixture was not only right at end of the old year but initially marked as last on the list for playing each & every other club once by the halfway stage. Then covid caused 2 postponements during December, which altered that original schedule & reduced completed numbers. Looking thru our four previous results at the Bridge it was glaringly obvious we had a problem actually putting the ball into the goal there. Building on last term's nil-nil stalemate would mean hitting back of the net for a kickoff. Lack of signing a new striker during summer had been mitigated by better results, or at least not getting beat regularly. So time would tell during January whether our squad was bolstered with an extra pukka forward. Talking of big hitters, Blues boss Thomas Tuchel purchased goal machine Lukaku for about 100 mega bucks in August - so intended a realistic title challenge. At this stage of affairs they were 3rd, while we had climbed back to 9th from earlier dizzy summer heights. Go to Archive for a tale of this season so far in Stats - for facts & figs and players apps/goal records. * match report: Albion bagged a point in stoppage time to finally break their duck of not scoring at the Bridge. Welbeck came on as an impact sub and headed home a cross from Cucurella in dramatic late fashion (91min). Previously Blues led at halftime from a header when visitors failed to deal with their basic corner routine (28min). But although that lapse got punished Seagulls were good value for parity, with competitive stats registered at close of the day. Chances came and went at both ends but it seemed hosts would shade this hard fought contest by a single goal - until it deservedly became one each in injury time. Potter urged his men forward throughout and employed attacking tactics via the team pushing up field from gaining extra possession. Albion were fluid in shape and maintained momentum following subs and players repositioning. Everyone put in a shift, matching hosts for effort and endevour - see stats below. Travelling support went wild at that frantic climax coz it almost felt like a win. You couldn't make it up... but once again BHA had gotten something on travels from netting a late late goal. Stats: ht 1-0, goals 28-91, poss 47%-53%, on target 5-6, off target 6-12, corners 10-8, o/s 1-0, fouls 14-7, yellows 4-1, subs 3-3, shape 3421-3421 weather: mild . gate: 40,080, away 3012 . MoM: Bissouma - immense. team: 1 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (12 Mwepu 66), 34 Veltman, 33 Burn, 3 Cucurella, 8 Bissouma Y, 14 Lallana, 20 March, 15 Moder (17 Alzate 80), 10 Mac Allister (18 Welbeck 80), 9 Maupay . bench: 23 Steele, 4 Webster, 24 Duffy, 13 Gross, 30 Richards, 58 Ferguson. squad: 7 Connolly . injured: 5 Dunk, 11 Trossard, 60 Sarmiento. Prem: P18 . W3 D3 L3 . F8 A9 . W2 D6 L1 . F9 A9 . Pt24 Po10 = 1.33pt/gm . W = 27.7% L = 22.2% Season10, 4th Premier League (A) Tue 20/4/21 - 0-0 Covid restrictions: no fans - (post-lockdown 3, T3/4/5 = 0 fans, home fans @ Tier 2 = 2k ). Visits to Stamford Bridge had proved fruitless and also goalless for Albion during three consecutive campaigns prior to today. So at this late April midweek evening juncture, scoring a goal would be progress of a sort - given desire for BHA to up the ante and later become a regular midtable club. Difference in class, derived from last decade's history, proved a disadvantage to Seagulls overall but for any given day, competing on an equal basis via achievable performance levels could give us something of a chance. In the event such a Prem gulf was figuratively bigger than ever this term and on paper Albion were again marked at short odds to get well beat once more. This was that Tuesday night when Chelsea fans protested outside Stamford Bridge about plans for the big six outfits to play in a proposed European Super League - so delaying ko time by 15mins. In the event the metropolitan club quickly pulled out with fellow Prem associates and it was all over bar issue of the high court writs. * match report: It was also another match in which Albion did not score but by hook or crook took a first point here via a goalless draw. Seagulls were defensively sound, pressed high up the pitch, threatened to score and did everything else right bar find the net. Hosts were reduced to few chances and it became a tactical battle of various shapes and of trying to find holes & spaces, as well as introducing impact subs during later stages. Visitors were always in the game, took play to locals when possible and racked up majority of off targets. Welbeck hit a post, Lallana & Bissouma went v close and Sanchez did his bit too down the other end. Brighton fans following broadcasts on pay tv or free radio were more than pleased to take a point, although disappointed that White got a second yellow in injury time to spoil an otherwise ok away evening at home. Potter was happy coz BHA were now 7pts clear of the d-z and Tony Bloom, Paul Barber and Dan Ashworth relieved that Chelsea had their eye back on the proverbial ball only after 90+ minutes were actually over. Whatever the correct diagnosis, Albion got a valuable first return on results here and it duly went into PL records. There has to be a reason to strive for the preceived unatainable status and BHA were an example of it this century - ask a Brighton fan for explanation. Stats: ht 0-0, goals nil, poss 64%-36%, on target 4-2, off target 3-9, corners 0-3, fouls 8-9, yellows 2-1, red 0-1, subs 3-3, shape 343-352 . Weather: dry Team: 26 Sanchez, 3 White R, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 34 Veltman, 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 33 Burn, 18 Welbeck (15 Moder 86), 10 Mac Alister (9 Maupay 74), 11 Trossard (14 Lallana 60) . Subs: 23 Steele, 17 Alzate, 16 Jahanbakhsh, 19 Izquierdo, 24 Propper, 29 Zeqiri . Squad: 6 Karbownik, 7 Connolly, 22 Tau, 25 Caicedo . Injured: 2 Lamptey, 20 March . MoM: tba Prem: P32 . W2 D8 L6 . F16 A19 . W5 D5 L6 . F17 A19 . Pt34 Po16 = 1.06pt/gm. Wins = 21.8%, Loss = 37.5% Season9, 3rd Premier League (A) - Sat 28/9/19 - L 2-0. The fall of fixtures spewed out by those proverbial Prem League computers last June meant Albion initially journeyed into London up the Fulham Road thru SW6. By digital twist of footy fate, 4 of our next 6 aways were also versus big-six giants. Those capital contests being over at Drayton Park in N5 & later up Bill Nicholson Way N17, for beginning & end of December. But we had to play them all at some time or other, so why not now? Last term's traumatic run-in had also included visits to Chelsea, Arsenal & Spurs, thus writing was now on these super-stadium walls for measurable improvement, in theory at least. Albion previously scored away on opening day but since failed to find the net and this stat loomed large prior to kickoff at the Bridge. Graham Potter wasn't expected to abandon his expansive method of play but keeping a clean sheet would go a long way toward any improvement in returns against one of these metropolitan giants. He had already introduced new players, put in youngsters, dropped previous regulars, reshaped the whole squad and sent all manner of 1st 11 group pros & U23s out on loan. It was a work in progress all right but the balance sheet thru this opening period (Q1) needed at least a point per game to track basic survival targets. Anything less and Albion were on the long road to an unhappy Xmas & New Year at the halfway stage, plus still with it all to do in 2020 (see Season9 Chelsea H above). Albion were outclassed, conceding a second half penalty (50min) and then a deflection (76min) to seal their fate. In fact the score could have been worse if not for Ryan with a series of saves. Potter changed things on turnaround after a goalless first half. Bong entered the fray and Alzate moved over to shore up the right side. But Blues kept cutting through us anyhow and it was just a question of law of averages that one incident would result in a goal. Seagulls were lacklustre up front and introduction of Connolly & Murray did little to improve matters. Potter's revised style of play gets BHA up to the box but after that it kinda falls flat. There is nobody capable of finding the net and past records show Brighton relied too much on Murray, who is now 36 and on the bench to boot. And reliance on scoring from set pieces has failed thus far as well. Defenders & midfielders are not taking chances and the vital killer instinct is missing for sure. Potter said, 'we were lucky to go in nil-nil at halftime.' Brighton fans thought we were lucky to get nought at end of the day. No clean sheet but a tell-tale fail to score... again. Stats; ht 0-0, goals 50,76, shape 433-541, poss 53%-47%, on target 10-1, off target 4-4, blocks 10-3, crosses 12-14, corners 5-2, o/s 1-2, tackles 18-20, fouls 5-13, yellow 2-3, subs 3-3 . Gate 40,683 away 2992 . MoM - Ryan . Weather - dry but breezy. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster Y, 5 Dunk, 33 Burn, 46 Alzate Y, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens, 8 Bissouma (3 Bong 46), 18 Mooy (44 Connolly 65), 7 Maupay Y (17 Murray 79) . Subs - 27 Button, 28 Baluta, 21 Schelotto, 16 Jahanbakhsh. Squad - 23 Steele . Injured - 4 Duffy, 11 Trossard, 14 Balogun, 19 Izquierdo, 20 March, 24 Propper, 30 Bernardo. Prem P7 . W0 D2 L1 F2 A4 . W1 D1 L2 F3 A6 . Pt6 Po16 = 0.85pt/gm. Wins = 14.2%, Loss = 42.8% Season8 2nd Premier League (A) - Wednesday 3/4/19 - L 3-0. The initial PL midseason match was rescheduled from Sat Feb 23rd because Blues reached the EFL Cup final, actually played on the Sunday of that weekend. The south-west London outfit was also still involved in the Europa League k-o stages, while Albion had very fortunately progressed into later domestic FA Cup rounds. Add to these the international week and hey-ho the fixture kinda got extra delayed beyond March, being squeezed into a very busy April run-in. Seagulls were not too hot on the road this term, so although playing the contest would complete their game in hand on other danger zone rivals, getting beat was the most likely outcome. Some Brighton fans thought Seagulls had taken their eyes off the ball anyway, what with the Wembley FA Cup semi-final looming on the next Saturday. And never more did we need points away from home than now to help preserve a credible campaign ending in survival rather than facing the drop. It all ended predictably when Seagulls were blown away by a better team with world class players doing what was required. A useful BHA defensive show in the first half got split assunder just before the interval (38min) and afterwards it was pretty much one way traffic. March limped off injured early on and Albion suffered penetration down that flank. Around the hour mark Blues put the game to bed with 2 quality strikes (60 & 64min). Hughton sent subs on but it was all over bar the crying in beer glasses on the way home. Hughton said, 'if we were a good enough team to take the game to them it would be wonderful but we're not. We needed to show more going forward and there were moments when we broke well. Regards what the players gave, I can't fault that.' Many Brighton fans were left frustrated, not perhaps with another expected away defeat but overall from a campaign that was only turning out like last year when we were now supposed to have a better squad. Stats; ht 1-0, goals 38,60,64, shape 433-451, poss 68%-32%, on target 4-1, off target 8-2, corners 7-1, fouls 5-9, yellow 0-0, subs 3-3. Gate 38,593, away 2844 . MoM - Bissouma . Weather - dry & cold. 1 Ryan, 2 Bruno, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 8 Bissouma, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March (11 Knockaert 31), 10 Andone (17 Murray 70), 16 Jahanbakhsh (30 Bernardo 75) . Subs - 27 Button, 33 Burn, 7 Kayal, 19 Izquierdo. Prem P31 . W6 D4 L5 F17 A16 . W3 D2 L11 F15 A30 . Pt33 Po15 = 1.06pt/gm. Wins = 29%, Loss = 51.6% Season7 1st Premier League (A) Tuesday 26/12/17 - L 2-0. Yes Brighton fans, it was the unique Boxing Day match and who would have thought merely a few years ago that Albion would visit Stamford Bridge for post Xmas festivities? This holiday fixture against defending champions also marked beginning of second half of Seagulls first PL season. And once again versus a top-six side, not many supporters anticipated BHA might obtain any sort of yuletide present in SW London. Albion's season had been going ok to date with 14pt gained at the Amex and 7pt on the road. The worst that could happen was to slip a couple of places but remain above the drop zone going into the last game of 2017. Albion held out for stalemate during the first half with a decent defensive display. But the clean sheet went west when they didn't hit the ground running immediately after the interval. Blues split the defence with a pinpoint cross and header and Seagulls were now chasing the game (46min). Next Stephens was booked in his role as holding midfielder. Then hosts put the contest out of visitors reach on the hour mark, via another headed goal from a set piece. In the last fifteen minutes both sides put subs on but effectively the one-sided match was over already. Hughton said, 'what you experience is consistent quality of ball in from set pieces, so you have to be more resolute in defence. It's about responsibility ultimately. You do work on the training pitch but it's about players doing it on the day.' Brighton fans could see the squad was struggling in the final third which put pressure on defence by giving the ball back constantly. Many supporters couldn't wait for January and hope new players would come in and do better in the goal-scoring department. Stats; shape 32311-4141, ht 0-0, goals 46,60, poss 67%-33%, on target 8-1, off target 10-4, corners 13-1, o/s 2-2, fouls 8-8, yellows 0-1, subs 3-3. Gate 41,568 (away 3001). 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk (Capt), 29 Suttner, 20 March (11 Knockaert), 7 Kayal (13 Gross), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 19 Izquierdo, 10 Hemed (17 Murray). P20 . W5 D6 L9 . F15 A25 . Pt21 Po12 = 1.05pt/gm . Wins = 20.0%, Loss = 45.0% CHELSEA @ home; Stamford Bridge. Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 24/25 - 0 1 1 . 1 3 -2 . 1 11 = 0.50 25.0 . 00.0 50.0 - Enzo Maresca @ 13/9/24 23/24 - 11 4 4 . 44 26 18 . 37 06 = 1.94 58.7 . 57.8 21.0 - Mauricio Pochettino 22/23 - 06 7 6 . 20 19 01 . 25 12 = 1.31 56.8 . 31.5 31.5 - Frank Lampard, Graham Potter & Thomas Tuchel 21/22 - 09 7 3 . 37 22 15 . 34 03 = 1.78 45.9 . 47.3 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel 20/21 - 09 6 4 . 31 18 13 . 33 04 = 1.73 49.2 . 47.3 21.0 - Frank Lampard & Thomas Tuchel. 19/20 - 11 3 5 . 30 16 14 . 36 04 = 1.89 54.5 . 57.8 26.3 - Frank Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 12 6 1 . 39 12 27 . 42 03 = 2.21 58.3 . 63.1 05.2 - Maurizio Sarri. 17/18 - 11 4 4 . 30 16 14 . 37 05 = 1.94 52.8 . 57.8 21.0 - Antonio Conte. 16/17 - 17 0 2 . 55 17 38 . 51 01 = 2.68 54.8 . 89.4 10.5 - Antonio Conte. 15/16 - 05 9 5 . 32 30 02 . 24 10 = 1.26 48.0 . 26.3 26.3 - J Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. 14/15 - 15 4 0 . 36 09 27 . 49 01 = 2.57 56.3 . 78.9 00.0 - Jose Mourinho 13/14 - 15 3 1 . 43 11 32 . 48 03 = 2.52 58.5 . 78.9 05.2 - Jose Mourinho. * * * * * Falmer years, 2011 to 2017 - no visits to Stamford Bridge. Withdean era, 1999 to 2011 - no visits.
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Previous encounters (Chelsea )
CHELSEA - Home, Falmer Years: Prem 17/18-24/25, seasons 7-14. no league meetings in seasons between 2011 to 2017. Prem previous encounters home & away: P14 W2 D4 L8 - see Clubs in Archive. manager: Enzo Maresca (2024) P0 W = 0% @ July '24 . experience: took Leicester straight back up to the Prem in '24. Stamford Bridge: ave gate; 40.1K, cap; 40.3K . nickname: Blues . shirt: dark blue. Prem record from 11/12: 6 3 3 1 10 1 / 5 3 4 4 3 12 6 11 @ 13/9/24. Prem recent best = 1st '15 '17, worst = 12th '23. C21; title - 5 times . runner-up - 4 times, top four - 7 times, top six - 6 times, top ten - 1 time. 24/25 odds at start: title 16/1, top four 6-4, top six 2-5 . sack EM 16/1 . expected to finish: top six run in: Spurs (H), Br'ford (A), Ipswich (H), Fulham (A), Everton (H), Liv'pool (H), N'castle (A), Man Utd (H), Forest (A) run in forecast: ?pt > ?pt . max was ? . actual = ? . Po was ? . actual Po = ? Albion v Chelsea (H) from 17/18: 0-4 1-2 1-1 1-3 1-1 4-1 1-2 . . W = 1 D = 2 L = 4 . F9 A13 scorers: March Jahanbakhsh Trossard 2 Webster Gross Welbeck og 2. memorable match: Season7 (H) - Brighton fans got to see how top strikers contributed to, took and also registered goal-scoring opportuites. note: for away Falmer Years results and reports scroll further below. Season14, 8th Premier League (H) Sat 15/2/25 - tba This reciprocal Feb '25 fixture was the 12th of 19 at home and followed the FA Cup R4 ties last Saturday during mid-season (Q2-3). The reverse game was 28 Sept '24 in the first quarter (Q1) - see away scroll further below. We had lost both matches last season during Dec '23 (A) & May '24 (H) and also away earlier in the League Cup. Last year we'd met here during mid May's run-in when taken apart by travellers slick play. At the halfway stage (Q2) we had xpts and they had xpts. Now at this later stage (Q3) we had xpts and they had xpts. Our Prem record at the Amex versus Blues was; lld ldw l - in all seven seasons to date. Just one win needs obvious improvement. Current home form was; W D L F A tba. Visitors away form was: W D L F A tba. At the moment Brighton were xth, while Chelsea were x from x games played. At the halfway stage we were xth and they were xth. In the last three campaigns we'd been 9, 6 & 8 at the halfway stage and finished 9, 6 & 11. Albion were looking to get rare points off these mega Londoners. Blues were tba in the Europa Conf League. Their latest boss had so far ... in the January window. In the FA Cup . Headline news this week was ... * match report: tba day after result stats: ht , goals , poss %-%, on target , off target , corners , fouls , yellows , subs , shape weather: . gate: . MoM: team: 23 Steele 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 24 Adingra 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck subs: bench: 1 Verbruggen 3 Julio 4 Webster 6 Milner 7 March 9 Pedro 15 Moder 20 Baleba 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood squad: . injured: Prem P25 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Blues: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% start: 03 . 01 01 01 . 07 05 02 . 04 9 = 1.33 . 33.3 33.3 - Europa Conference: Servette 2-1 (A) 2-0 (H) p-os EFL Cup: Barrow (H) R3 FA Cup: R3 Nov: xth in table, xpts off xth at Q1 Season13, 7th Premier League (H) Wed 15/5/24 - L 1-2 ~ Welbeck This match was rearranged for mid May due to Blues FA Cup s-f appearance clashing with PL fixtures in late April. We were now deep into the run-in, with only two consecutive home games to go for completion of our 7th Prem campaign. So far visitors habitual away record was; W6 D5 L7 F31 A36 - fairly average stats. Our Prem record at the Amex versus Blues was; lld ldw - in six seasons to date. A recent single win but there were goals in majority of games at both ends. Current home form was; W8 D6 L3 F29 A23 - useful returns. At the moment Brighton were 10th, while Chelsea were 7th with just these two games here left. In the January transfer window no big business got done by any Prem clubs due to enforced fair play rules & regs. So our original squad soldiered on, although that ongoing injury list was extra long at times and RdZ made up match-day groups with several U21s sat on the bench. Blues had changed managers 4 times during our Prem years, Graham Potter being their usual seasonal casualty during a fraught last term. But Mauricio Pochettino seemed safe at the moment due to much improved form. Based on previous meetings Brighton were looking for a second straight win hosting Chelsea. Mid table had developed into a scrap for a place in Europe next season, which current Prem results would decide. Albion had blown it but Blues were still in the hunt. They had gained momentum, cruising past us in recent weeks as we faltered to score goals during the run in. Our small tally of 3 from 7 was; 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 - one og, one spot-kick rebound and one at a corner routine. Brighton were positioned at dead centre of the table, had very average stats of W12 D12 L12 and badly needed to prove a proverbial point by raising the game in front of devoted support. After all, Chelsea had spent a lot of money at Brighton. * match report: where to begin... oh yes, another loss against a big-six side heading for Europe. Chelsea had indeed improved enormously since we last met, while we were going in the opposite direction just as quickly. Brighton now looked a shadow of the side that had begun this disappointing campaign full of vigor, pep and desire. Blues won fair and square and it all started to kickoff early when Ref was sent by VAR to review his pen decision against us. But a little later visitors did take the lead when Verbruggen couldn't get up to a flighted header across the box (34mins). Dunk didn't come out for the second period either and Albion were set up less strongly as we chased the game. The fluent away outfit went two ahead after the hour mark, so it was all over bar the singing behind the south goal (64 mins). We'd been caught out again through defensive slips and couldn't take our chances to make a game of it. At the death Ref sent off one of the Chelsea subs (88mins) for blatantly upsetting Pedro. Welbeck stabbed in very late before going home time (97mins) to make the score look as if we had really tried very hard. De Zerbi said he didn't like the Ref, which covered up what he might have said about us going through the motions in this weak end of season affair. We were never gonna hand out a beating because we can't keep clean sheets and have lost the plot when it comes to out-scoring opposition. The run-in has turned into a disaster with; dld llw dl - F4 A14. That's the be all and end of it this term for what it's worth. stats: ht 0-1, goals 97-34,64, poss 53%-47%, on target 2-6, off target 9-7, corners 4-6, fouls 14-13, yellows 2-2, red 0-1, subs 5-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: mild . gate: tba . MoM: ? team: 1 Verbruggen 2 Lamptey 4 Webster 5 Dunk 3 Julio 40 Buonanotte 11 Gilmour 13 Gross 24 Adingra 10 Enciso 9 Pedro subs: 19 Barco 45 (5), 18 Welbeck 70 (40), 20 Baleba 70 (11), 31 Fati 85 (10), 42 Offiah 85 (2) bench: 23 Steele 14 Lallana 15 Moder 65 Atom squad: McGill (gk). injured: 6 Milner 7 March 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson 29 van Hecke 30 Estupinan 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood Prem P37 . W8 D6 L4 . F30 A25 . W4 D6 L9 . F25 A35 . Pt48 Po10 = 1.29pt/gm . W = 32.4% L = 35.1% Blues: Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% total: 38 . 18 09 11 . 77 63 14 . 63 06 = 1.65 . 47.3 28.9 3qtr: 29 . 12 07 10 . 53 50 03 . 43 10 = 1.48 . 41.3 34.4 hfwy: 19 . 07 04 08 . 31 29 02 . 25 10 = 1.31 . 36.8 42.1 start: 10 . 03 03 04 . 13 11 02 . 12 11 = 1.20 . 30.0 40.0 - M Pochettino EFL Cup: Liverpool L 0-1 final, Middlesbro 6-1 (H) 1-0 (A) s-f, Newcastle 4pen2 1-1 (H) q-f, Blackburn 2-0 (H) R4, Brighton 1-0 (H) R3, Wimbledon 2-1 (H) R2 FA Cup: Man City 1-0 s-f, Leicester 4-2 (H) q-f, Leeds 3-2 (H) R5, Villa 1-3 (A) 0-0 (H) R4, Preston 4-0 (H) R3 Oct: 11th in table, 1pt off 10th at Q1. Dec: 10th, 6pts from 7th at Q2. Mar: 11th, 1pt off 10th at Q3. May: finished 6th, 3pts from 5th at Q4. 23/24 odds at start: title 12/1, top four 11-8, top six 4-9 . sack MP 25/1 . expected to finish: top six run in from 30/3/24: Burnley 2-2 (H), Man Utd 4-3 (H), Sheff Utd 2-2 (A), Everton 6-0 (H), Arsenal 5-0 (A), Villa 2-2 (A), Spurs 2-0 (H), West Ham 5-0 (H), Forest 2-3 (A), Brighton 1-2 (A), B'mouth 2-1 (H) run in forecast @ 29/3/24: 39pt > 55pts . max was 72 . Actual = 63 . Po was 11th . Actual po = 6th Season12, 6th Premier League (H) Sat 29/10/22 - W 4-1 ~ Trossard, og 2, Gross First of all; welcome back Graham Potter & staff. Long time no see - well since you left us in early Sept anyway. Brighton fans may recall Albion getting badly beat by Blues here in Jan '18 during our initial Prem campaign when survival was utmost (see scroll below). It had since been a steep learning curve, made more difficult to climb when facing top-six outfits like Chelsea, Man City & Liverpool. Then for subsequent seasons various Albion teams had performed better against the big southwest London club, although yet to record a single victory against them at the Amex. We'd lost a second time in Dec '18 before gaining a first point in Jan '20. There followed a third reversal in Sept '20 then a second draw in Jan '22 (seasons 7-11). Perhaps with the upgraded squad ex-coach Graham Potter had assembled from last term a win was now possible. Chelsea spent 140m by start of the season. But sacked their manager in first week of September. Potter was invited there straight away and very quickly took this big job on. Albion head coach now was Roberto de Zerbi and the Italian was feeling his way into Prem culture, understanding this elite English game and how to make in-play tactical decisions. So far he'd overseen merely 2pts acquired out of 15 available in October to date. His challenge was to turn good displays, reasonable levels, fair performances and tactical game-plans into positive points returns. However, one problem was evident; he hadn't solved the goal-scoring conundrum of a group that historically didn't find the net enough to establish as regular winners. *** match report: no matter what stats showed prior to kickoff Albion achieved a first victory versus Blues and scored twice ourselves. From the off it was pedal to the metal as hosts pressed visitors high up the pitch using man to man marking. Suddenly the away end was under siege with locals attempts peppering the goalmouth. Trossard went round the keeper for the first (5mins). Then a March corner also got stuck in the net off a defenders boot (14mins). Just before halftime a second og was registered following a run & centre by Estupinan (42min). Immediately on turnaround visitors pegged one back from a free header (48mins). But their efforts to reduce deficit were soaked up by blue & white defensive shape plus super skills between the sticks from Sanchez. De Zerbi introduced Enciso on debut off the bench and also regular impact sub Lamptey to worry the toiling metropolitan outfit. Sarmiento got a rare outing too late in the afternoon. Gross bagged a fourth for Seagulls at the death, smacking in a rebound when Enciso's shot was parried (92mins). Brighton fans were loud & proud, De Zerbi also very happy to be collecting three points and the squad pleased they'd raised their game at the Amex. We have to report there was some booing of Potter at kickoff and fellow went-away Cucurella during play. There certainly was passion on three sides of the stadium spilling over the home technical area. RdZ said; 'I am thankful to have found these players and this club. They had confidence in me. It has been difficult to win people over without the results.' So October ended with 5pts gained out of a possible 18 max. But there surely was optimism for the future in watching development of this Seagulls squad thru next year - after a long pause for World Cup finals throughout much of November & December. Time would indeed tell. stats: ht 3-0, goals 5,14,42,92-48, poss 41%-59%, on 9-7, off 7-5, blocks 3-3, corners 8-7, o/s 0-0, tackles 17-8, fouls 16-6, yellows 1-2, subs 3-5, shape 4231-3421 weather: dry & warm . gate: 31,746 away 3007 . MoM: Sanchez - top keeping. team: 1 Sanchez 13 Gross 4 Webster 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 7 March 10 Mac Allister 25 Caicedo 22 Mitoma 14 Lallana 11 Trossard. subs: 20 Enciso 65 (14), 2 Lamptey 73 (22), 19 Sarmiento 87 (11) bench: 23 Steele 21 Undav 27 Gilmour 43 Turns 47 Furlong 49 Moran injured: 34 Veltman . ill: 18 Welbeck . rehab: 15 Moder . squad: 6 Colwill Prem: P12 . W3 D2 L1 . F10 A4. W2 D1 L3 . F9 A11 . Pt18 Po8 = 1.50pt/gm . W = 41.6% L = 33.3% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% total: 38 . 11 11 16 . 38 47 -09 . 44 12 = 1.15 . 28.9 42.1 - F Lampard 3qtrs: 29 . 10 09 10 . 29 30 -01 . 39 11 = 1.34 . 34.4 34.4 hfwy: 19 . 08 04 07 . 22 21 01 . 28 10 = 1.47 . 42.1 36.8 - G Potter start: 10 . 06 02 02 . 15 10 05 . 20 4 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 - G Potter & T Tuchel Champ Lg: q-f - R Madrid 0-2 (H) 2-0 (A) . 16 - B Dortmund 2-0 (H) 1-0 (A) gp - AC Milan 0-2 (A) 3-0 (H), Saltzburg 1-2 (A) 1-1 (H), D Zagreb 2-1 (H) 1-0 (A). EFL Cup: Man City 2-0 (A) R3. FA Cup: Man City 4-0 (A) R3. Oct: 4th in table, 4pts off 3rd at Q1. Manager sacked in early Sept. Potter hired. Jan: 10th, 1pt off 8th at halfway stage Q2. Apr: 11th, 9pts above 12th at three quarters stage Q3. Potter sacked. May: 12th, 8pts behind 10th at Q4. 22/23 odds at start: title 16/1, top four 4-6 . Sack TT 12/1 . Expected to finish: in top four at least. Run in from 8/4/23: Wolves 1-0 (A), Brighton 1-2 (H), Brentford 0-2 (H), Arsenal 3-1 (A), B'mouth 1-3 (A), Forest 2-2 (H), Man City 1-0 (A), Man Utd 4-1 (A), Newcastle 1-1 (H) Run in forecast @ 7/4/23: 39pt > 51pts . Max was 66 . Actual = 44 . Po was 11th . Actual po = 12th Season11, 5th Premier League (H) Tue 18/1/22 - 1-1 ~ Webster. This fixture was brought forward from originally scheduled on 8/2/22 due to Chelsea's commitments in the Club World Cup. So it was now merely three weeks since we'd last played Blues, up at their place between Xmas & New Year. Four previous Albion results here versus these big-six metropolitan giants required improvement from our fifth straight meeting . The basic problem was how to stop them scoring, while we went in search of netting attempts ourselves. Our available strikers thus far had actually been reduced in the January transfer window when Connolly went out on loan. So goals would need to come from other positions to supplement lack of options. In rearguard Dunk was back training after a long term injury. Webster took the armband on this night. Meanwhile Chelsea still had many irons in the fire and recently got thru to the EFL Cup final by beating Spurs - incidentally these other London elitists being our next FAC R4 opponents away in a few weeks. Blues were chasing a Prem podium spot and for obvious reasons represented a tough nut to crack - given we could now find the heavy hammer from somewhere. * match report: Albion came from behind yet again to gain a point - the 7th from 8 draws where we'd conceded first. Against initial run of play visitors beat Sanchez with a low drive from distance (28min). Hosts then piled on pressure but couldn't find the net. After turnaround Seagulls pushed for a leveller and Potter soon had early subs lined up to bolster attack. On the hour mark Webster headed in a Mac A corner and so it was game on (60min). Blues upped the ante to get another one but locals did the necessary work to prevent possible defeat. The contest hung in balance but was entertaining for home and away support, press/media coverage and numerous neutrals watching on pay tv. Stats racked up at both ends, while in truth both keepers weren't unduly bothered by extra goalmouth action. The performance was good overall from BHA and Potter very proud of his squad at the final whistle. Brighton fans had plenty to shout about and nearly lifted the roof off when levelling scores versus strong opposition. Improvement was apparent compared to previous campaigns - going toe to toe got us a point we'd otherwise have failed to register as a bottom six outfit. And at long last a defender bagged us a goal in an all round pukka team performance. Onward and upward. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 60-28, poss 43%-57%, on target 2-3, off target 8-12, corners 5-7, fouls 8-5, yellows 1-2, subs 3-3, shape 4123-4231. weather: cold & still . gate: 30,880 (away 3103) . MoM: Webster - local hero. team: 1 Sanchez, 34 Veltman, 4 Webster (C), 33 Burn Y, 3 Cucurella, 13 Gross (9 Maupay 62), 17 Alzate, 10 Mac Allister, 2 Lamptey (20 March 76), 15 Moder, 18 Welbeck (11 Trossard 62) . bench: 16 Scherepen (gk), 38 McGill (gk), 25 Caicedo, 28 Roberts, 42 Leonard, 58 Ferguson. squad: 55 Turns . injured: 5 Dunk, 12 Mwepu, 14 Lallana, 24 Duffy. Prem: P21 . W3 D5 L3 . F10 A11 . W3 D6 L1 . F12 A11 . Pt29 Po9 = 1.38pt/gm . W = 28.5% L = 19.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 21 11 06 . 76 33 43 . 74 3 = 1.94 . 55.2 15.7 3qtrs: 29 . 17 08 04 . 58 23 35 . 59 3 = 2.03 . 58.3 13.7 Hfwy: 19 . 12 05 02 . 42 13 29 . 41 3 = 2.15 . 63.1 10.5 Start: 10 . 08 01 01 . 26 03 23 . 25 1 = 2.50 . 80.0 10.0 - Thomas Tuchel Ch Lg: R Madrid 1-3 (H) 2-3 (A) q-f . Lille 2-0 (H) 1-2 (A) 16 . Juve 1-0 (A) 4-0 (H), Zenit 1-0 (H) 3-3 (A), Malmo 4-0 (H) 0-1 (A) gp. Club World Cup: Palmeiras 2-1 aet (1-1) final . Al Hilal 0-1 s-f. EFL Cup: Liverpool L 10pen11 0-0 aet final . Spurs 0-1 (A) 2-0 (H) s-f . Brentford 0-2 (A) q-f, Southampton 4pen3 1-1 (H) R4, Villa 4pen3 1-1 (H) R3. FA Cup: Liverpool L 5pen6 0-0 final . Palace 2-0 s-f . Middlesbro 0-2 (A) q-f . Luton 2-3 (A) R5 . Plymouth 2-1 (H) R4 . Chesterfield 5-1 (H) R3. Oct: top of table and 3pts clear at Q1. Jan: 3rd, 6pts behind top place at halfway stage Q2. Mar: World Club champs, EFL Cup finalists. FA Cup & Ch Lg q-fs. 3rd, 13pts off 2nd at threequarters Q3. May: finshed 3rd 74pts, 18pts off 2nd. FA Cup finalists. Season10, 4th Premier League (H) Mon 14/9/20 - L 1-3 ~ Trossard. Covid restrictions: no fans allowed. Albion hosted the first 'crowd' attended test event with a friendly against Chelsea in late August. 2500 were allowed into the Amex, following all mandatory coronavirus protocols & precautions implemented both inside & out. Graham Potter fielded virtually all his then current squad over course of ninety minutes. These included players previously sent out on loan; Ben White, Chris Walton, Max Sanders & Jayson Molumby. This Prem fixture was our first of the season, albeit a month later than usual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which delayed completion of the previous Prem campaign until late July. The evening match was played behind closed doors without fans attending. Albion were hoping to make further progress this term, whether against big-six sides or the rest, which meant scoring many more goals. The rare example that secured a point here last season was a much replayed one-off (see season9 below). But now, as devised via orthodox (if slightly concentrated) coaching methods, Graham Potter needed all his front men to hit the net much more regularly. On immediate July conclusion of last season, Kayal, Schelotto and Knockaert (15m) left the club. Balogun had already gone in June. Montoya & Mooy (4m) departed for foreign climes in August. Seagulls signed Adam Lallana on a free from Liverpool and Joel Veltman for about 1m from Ajax at start of the revised close season. Ben White was added to the squad, BHA having turned down big offers from Leeds. But Duffy & Murray went out on seasons loans. Button (1m) also left the keepers group a week before the new campaign got under way in mid Sept. Clearly BHA were now a selling club in view of various ongoing circumstances. * match report: Albion lost this opener but did score a goal. Blues opened scoring from the spot after Ryan bought down an attacker (23min). Lallana had to go off injured just prior to halftime. Trossard equalised early in the second half (54m) with a low dive but visitors soon went ahead again from a worldy (56m). They sewed it up after the hour mark with a poke that deflected past Ryan (66m). Potter put on Jahanbakhsh & Gross late in the day but it was a token as Seagulls were merely flapping by then. Potter thought the result was harsh, although we'd let in three and missed chances up the other end. It was history repeating from last season and stay-home Brighton fans wondered where goals were coming from this term. Only time would tell in the long run. Stats: ht 0-1, goals 54-23,56,66, poss 52%-48%, on target 3-5, off target 10-5, corners 4-3, fouls 8-13, yellows 1-0, subs 3-3. Weather: fine evening. Team: 1 Ryan, 2 Lamptey Y, 3 White (16 Jahanbakhsh 79), 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 20 March, 8 Bissouma, 17 Alzate (13 Gross 79), 14 Lallana (7 Connolly 45), 9 Maupay, 11 Trossard . Bench: 23 Steele, 33 Burn, 34 Veltman, 6 Stephens. Squad: 10 Mac Allister, 26 Sanchez, 41 Sanders, 49 Molumby . Injured: 19 Izquierdo, 21 Andone, 24 Propper, 31 Walton . MoM: Lamptey. Prem: P1 . W0 D0 L1 . F1 A3 . W0 D0 L0 . F0 A0 . Pt0 Po16 = 0.00pt/gm. Wins = 0%, Loss = 100% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 19 10 09 . 58 36 22 . 67 4 = 1.76 . 50.0 23.6 3qtrs: 29 . 14 09 06 . 44 25 19 . 51 4 = 1.75 . 48.2 20.6 - T Tuchel Hfwy: 19 . 08 05 06 . 33 23 10 . 29 9 = 1.52 . 42.1 31.5 - F Lampard. Start: 10 . 05 04 01 . 22 10 12 . 19 3 = 1.90 . 50.0 10.0 - F Lampard. Champions League: final w 0-1 Man C . s-f - R Madrid 1-1 (A) 2-0 (H) . q-f - Porto 0-2 (A) 0-1 (H) . 16 - A Madrid 0-1 (A) 2-0 (H) . group - Sevilla 0-0 (H) 0-4 (A), Krasnodar 0-4 (A) 1-1 (H), Rennes 3-0 (H) 1-2 (A). EFL Cup: Spurs 5pen4 (1-1) (A) R4, Barnsley 6-0 (H) R3. FA Cup: Leicester L 0-1 final, Man City 1-0 s-f, Sheff U 2-0 (H) q-f, Barnsley 0-1 (A) R5, Luton 3-1 (H) R4, Morecambe 4-0 (H) R3. Nov: at end of the first quarter, Chelsea were 3rd in the Prem table, 2pts behind top two. Jan: at the halfway stage Blues slipped to 9th and sacked Lampard. Mar: threequarters completed and 4th, in range of the podium under Tuchel. May: Prem 4th in a three way fight, FA Cup finalists, Champions League winners. Season9, 3rd Premier League (H) Wed 1/1/20 - 1-1 ~ Jahanbakhsh. Another brand new year dawned at Falmer and by today's lunchtime the next PL kickoff had already arrived. Our EFL starting-over back at Withdean in Y2k actually seemed so much more than two whole decades ago. The lost generation of fans from that very late traumatic twentieth century League Two past had recovered sufficient numbers now to regularly sell out the Amex. And also rival those big crowds seen at the old Goldstone Ground during our glory Div1&2 years of yore. Chelsea had once visited Hove for an FA Cup tie there back in the day and huge queues for tickets were endless... go ask grandad. Albion did hold one ongoing record though; we'd never beaten Blues during our very few years total in the top div. Anyway thoughts had immediately turned to the transfer window and whether new faces would arrive to make second half of this campaign one to remember for all the right reasons. Albion had a proposed mission to be a top ten club in future, which couldn't be undertaken without improvement in personnel & Prem skills. Our third PL campaign in lower reaches had to deliver progression from now until May, or be written off again as just surviving in the elite... until time eventually runs out due to law of averages. * match report: Albion grabbed a point late in the afternoon with a sensational overhead kick by sub Jahanbakhsh following a corner (84min). Blues bossed first half exchanges and led from a scramble in hosts area early doors (10min). Burn went off injured (broken collar bone) to be replaced by Bernardo (22min). Potter changes things around after the interval when introducing Connolly and switching to 433. Seagulls gradually got into the game and a further alteration from Jahanbakhsh arriving reshaped again to 442. He became hero of the Amex when scoring and BHA then duly went in search of the winner. Chelsea hung on to their point and Brighton fans went home fairly happy to have avoided another beating. It wasn't exactly a classic but hopefully enough evidence displayed to encourage thinking that things were still moving in the right direction against yet more strong opposition. 2020 was here now and we all had to take those positives going forwards. stats: shape 4312-433, ht 0-1, goals 10-84, poss 48%-52%, on target 5-5, off target 7-7, blocks 4-4, corners 5-3, o/s 0-3, fouls 8-15, yellows 2-3, subs 3-2 . MoM - Jahanbakhsh . Gate - 30,559, away 2988 . Weather - dry but grey. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk Y, 33 Burn (30 Bernardo 22), 8 Bissouma (44 Connolly 46), 24 Propper, 46 Alzate, 18 Mooy (16 Jahanbakhsh 68), 11 Trossard, 7 Maupay Y . Subs - 27 Button, 4 Duffy, 6 Stephens, 13 Gross. Squad - 3 Bong, 14 Balogun, 17 Murray, 21 Schelotto, 14 Balogun . Injured - 19 Izquierdo, 20 March. Prem: P21 . W4 D4 L3 . F15 A11 . W2 D2 L6 . F9 A17 . Pt24 Po14 = 1.14pt/gm. Wins = 28.5%, Loss = 42.85% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 20 6 12 . 69 54 15 . 66 4 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 - F Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 3qtrs: 29 . 14 6 09 . 51 39 12 . 48 4 = 1.65 . 48.2 31.0 PREM SUSPENDED Hfwy: 19 . 10 2 07 . 33 27 06 . 32 4 = 1.68 . 52.6 36.8 Start: 10 . 06 2 02 . 23 16 07 . 20 4 = 2.00 . 60.0 20.0 - F Lampard. Champions League: Last 16 - B Munich 0-3 (H) 4-1 (A). Group - Ajax 0-1 (A) 4-4 (H), Valencia 2-2 (A) 0-1 (H), Lille 1-2 (A) 2-1 (H). EFL Cup: 4th rnd - Man utd 1-2 (H), 3rd rnd - Grimsby 7-1 (H) FA Cup: Arsenal L 2-1 final, Man Utd W 3-1 s-f, Leicester 0-1 (A) q-f, Liverpool 2-0 (H) R5, Hull 1-2 (A) R4, Forest 2-0 (H) R3. Aug: held up in congested mid table with a whole host of others having negative goal difference. Oct: improved to grab a top four slot by end of first quarter Q1. New Year: holds on to fourth slot, qual for last 16 of Ch Lg and in FAC4 draw. March: 4th place when PL suspended. Into FAC last eight. July: Top four and in Champions League, FAC finalists to boot. Season8 2nd Premier League (H) Sunday 16/12/18 - L 1-2 ~ March. The calendar year was drawing to a close and financial results had been published for last (17/18) season, where BHA had made a small profit (11m) for being part of the Prem money-making elite. On the field It was the middle of a hetic month, prior to reaching halfway thru the season just after Xmas. This fixture got moved back from Saturday due to visitors ongoing participation in the Europa League. Albion hoped to avoid a thrashing like last term and perhaps take something from a top six side at the Amex. Home form this campaign so far versus big clubs was; Man Utd 3-2 & Spurs 1-2, so things were finely balanced for Blues visit. In fact Spurs was the only domestic loss, as the record showed, W4 D2 L1 F12 A8 = 2.00pt/gm. And things were set fair for a competitve contest with goals at both ends. Whether Albion could halt visitors free scoring attack was open to conjecture but no doubt detailed defensive drills had been put into effect on Seagulls training pitch during the week beforehand. * match report: All that planning beforehand went out of the Amex window during the first half. After a start that flattered to deceive, Seagulls went a goal behind at visitors very quick attack (17min). A little later they were two down from giving the ball away and being counter-attacked one on one (33min). Hughton shook his lacklustre side up at the break and it's true to say BHA took the game to the London outfit for most of the second period. Andone came on around the hour mark and hosts scored soon afterwards. A deep cross from Gross got headed down by Bernardo and March netted a rare strike (66min). Bissouma & Locadia came on to up the ante but it kinda all fizzled out at the death. Hughton said, 'the goals knocked us and it became an uphill battle. You need to have a good team performance and we did get to grips better in the second half.' Brighton fans were hopeful of maybe snatching a point but in all honesty the team was always chasing the game, no matter how much fans screamed & shouted. Blues were too classy and left us feeling a little, well, blue... but definitely red faced. Stats; shape 451-433, h-t 0-2, goals 66-17,33, poss 42%-58%, on target 2-3, off target 3-4, corners 4-1, o/s 5-4, fouls 14-6, yellows 2-2, subs 3-3. Gate 30,645, away 3011 . MoM Bernardo . Weather - cloudy & drizzle. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 14 Balogun, 5 Dunk Y, 30 Bernardo, 11 Knockaert (9 Locadia 84), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March, 15 Gross (8 Bissouma 81), 17 Murray (10 Andone 60 Y) . Subs - 23 Steele, 2 Bruno, 3 Bong, 7 Kayal. Prem P17 . W4 D2 L2 . F13 A10 . W2 D1 L6 . F7 A14 . Pt21 Po13 = 1.23pt/m. Wins = 35.2%, Loss = 47.0% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total: 38 . 21 09 08 . 63 39 24 . 72 3 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 - M Sarri 3qtrs; 29 . 17 06 06 . 50 31 19 . 57 6 = 1.96 . 58.6 20.6 Hfwy; 19 . 12 04 03 . 37 16 21 . 40 4 = 2.10 . 63.1 15.7 - M Sarri. Start; 10 . 07 03 00 . 24 07 17 . 24 3 = 2.40 . 70.0 00.0 Europa League; final - beat Arsenal 4-1, s-f - Eintracht 1-1 (A) 4pen3 1-1aet (H), q-f - Slavia 0-1 (A) 4-3 (H), 16 - Kylv 3-0 (H) 0-5 (A), 32 - Malmo 1-2 (A), 3-0 (H). Group stage - Salonika 0-1 (A) 4-0 (H), Vidi 1-0 (H) 2-2 (A), Borisov 3-1 (H) 0-1 (A) EFL Cup; losing finalists - Man City 0-0 aet 3-4 pens, s-f - Spurs 1-0 (A) 4-2 pens 2-1 (H), q-f - Bournemouth 1-0 (H), 4th rnd - Derby 3-2 (H), 3rd rnd - Liverpool 1-2 (A) FA Cup; 5th rnd - Man Utd 0-2 (H), 4th rnd - Sheff Wed 3-0 (H), 3rd rnd - Forest 2-0 (H) Aug; another new start in many respects, need to hit the ground running in order to challenge for PL 1-4 and by definition EL/CL progress. October; in top four and unbeaten during first quarter stats. Europa Lg going well. New Year; top four berth without actually stepping onto the podium. EFL & FA Cup progress. March; in a four way scrap for third. Europa Lg q-f. EFL Cup finalists. Season7 1st Premier League (H) 20/1/18 - L 0-4. Albion went to London on Boxing Day and this reciprocal fixture was that odd one which reoccurred within a month. During first half of the season Seagulls hosted Man City (0-2) on opening day and in early December crashed to Liverpool (1-5). Blues were the third top six team to visit and the campaign would later draw to a protracted close by staging games versus Arsenal, Spurs & Man Utd between early March and thru to beginning of May. Points at the Amex were fundamental to survival in the PL and thus far 15pt of the 23pt tally to date were gained there. Since September Seagulls had just about averaged a point per game and thus required a draw to maintain parity. *** match report: Albion lost the game in the first five minutes when they just didn't turn up. A revised 532 shape by hosts was easily opened up like a can of worms twice during an opening blitz by current champions (3 & 6 min). Ref turned down two pen appeals by Schelotto in the first half and Seagulls also hit the woodwork during the second period. But stats told the true story and despite an all round effort by the starting eleven and 3 subs, Albion failed to score. They then conceded two late goals to compound failure against another top-six side (77 & 89 min). Hughton said, 'we had some really good periods but the difference was the penalty appeals.' Brighton fans could see it was a mismatch and same old stuff at end of the day in the final thirds. The squad appeared lightweight and was basically that which were given a chance to prove themselves in the PL. Writing was now on the Amex wall for a relegation battle until death or glory. A way had to be found to score goals and players proving capable of doing so. Surviving this campaign as a Prem club was now in real doubt. Stats; shape 532-343, ht 0-2, goals 3,6,77,89, poss 42%-58%, on target 3-10, off target 5-1, blocks 2-3, crosses 29-10, corners 5-3, o/s 4-0, tackles 11-12, fouls 12-5, yellows 3-0, subs 3-3 . Gate 30,600 (away 3028) 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 18 Goldson, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 29 Suttner, 13 Gross (7 Kayal), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March (19 Izquierdo), 10 Hemed (17 Murray). P24 . W5 D8 L11 . F17 A33 . Pt23 Po16 = 0.95pt/gm . Wins = 20.8%, Loss = 45.8% Quatr: Pl . W D L . . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% Total; 38 . 21 07 10 . 62 38 24 . 70 5 = 1.84 . 55.5 26.3 - Antonio Conte. 3qtrs; 29 . 16 05 08 . 50 26 24 . 53 5 = 1.82 . 55.1 27.5 Hfwy; 19 . 12 03 04 . 32 14 18 . 39 3 = 2.05 . 63.1 21.0 Start; 10 . 06 01 03 . 18 10 08 . 19 4 = 1.90 . 60.0 30.0 Aug - every chance of a title challenge and long runs in both Cups, plus kick on to later stages of the Champions League. New Year - a podium place likely and are still in Cups. March - in the mix for top four position. EFL Cup Semi-finalist. FA Cup Q-F. Champions League last 16. CHELSEA away; Prem. Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 24/25 - 1 0 0 . 6 2 4 . 3 11 = 3.00 75.0 . 100.0 00.0 - Enzo Maresca @ 13/9/24 23/24 - 07 5 7 . 33 37 -04 . 26 06 = 1.36 41.2 . 36.8 36.8 - Mauricio Pochettino 22/23 - 5 4 10 . 18 28 -10 . 19 12 = 1.00 43.1 . 26.3 52.6 - Lampard, Potter & Tuchel 21/22 - 12 4 3 . 39 11 28 . 40 03 = 2.10 54.0 . 63.1 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel 20/21 - 10 4 5 . 21 12 09 . 34 04 = 1.78 50.7 . 52.6 26.3 - Frank Lampard & Thomas Tuchel. 19/20 - 09 3 7 . 38 37 01 . 30 04 = 1.57 45.4 . 47.3 36.8 - Frank Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 09 3 7 . 24 27 -3 .. 30 03 = 1.57 41.6 . 47.3 36.8 - Maurizio Sarri. 17/18 - 10 3 6 . 32 22 10 . 33 05 = 1.73 47.1 . 52.6 31.5 - Antonio Conte. 16/17 - 13 3 3 . 30 16 14 . 42 01 = 2.21 45.1 . 68.4 15.7 - Antonio Conte. 15/16 - 07 5 7 . 27 23 04 . 26 10 = 1.36 52.0 . 36.8 36.8 - J Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. 14/15 - 11 5 3 . 37 23 14 . 38 01 = 2.00 43.6 . 57.8 15.7 - Jose Mourinho. 13/14 - 10 4 5 . 28 16 12 . 34 03 = 1.78 41.4 . 52.6 26.3 - Jose Mourinho. CHELSEA PREVIOUS PREM; podiums; 21/22 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 18/19 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 16/17 - Chelsea, Spurs, Man City . 14/15 - Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal. 13/14 - Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea . 12/13 - Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea. Prem points: 64, 75, 82, 87, 50, 93, 70, 72, 66 / 67, 74, 44, 63 recent managers; Thomas Tuchel (21-22), Frank Lampard (19-21), Maurizio Sarri (18-19), Antonio Conte (16-18), Guus Hiddink (2016), Jose Mourinho (13-15), Rafa Benitez (12-13), Roberto de Matteo (2012), Andre Villas Boas (11-12). Mauricio Pochettino (23-24) . Experience: top of the range coach, with a decent record in Europe too. Frank Lampard (interim) . Experience: ex-Everton short-term boss latest. Graham Potter (22-23) . Experience: ex-Albion head coach with limited top flight time. Thomas Tuchel (21-22) - P93 W = 61.2% @ July '22 . Experience: top head coach in Germany & France. Frank Lampard (19-21) - W = 52.7% @ Aug '20 . Experience: rookie Prem boss who was an ex-England & Blues stalwart. Seasn . W D L . . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm . W% L% 23/24 - 18 09 11 . 77 63 14 . 63 6 = 1.65 . 47.3 28.9 - Mauriccio Pochettino @ 20/5/24 Finished strongly from mid div but manager parted company with the club at their zenith. 22/23 - 11 11 16 . 38 47 -9 . 44 12 = 1.15 . 28.9 42.1 - Frank Lampard @ 28/5/23 The basket case of the division and got thu 3 coaches to stay in mid table for their worst finish since Jose & Guss in '16. 21/22 - 21 11 6 . 76 33 43 .. 74 3 = 1.94 . 55.2 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel @ 22/5/22 Well adrift of top two at the death in a campaign tainted by sanctions against the owner, Russian oligarch Abramovich. 20/21 - 19 10 9 . 58 36 22 .. 67 4 = 1.76 . 50.0 23.6 - Thomas Tuchel & Frank Lampard @ 24/5/21 Got to top four and a Champions League place soon after losing FA Cup finalists. 19/20 - 20 6 12 . 69 54 15 .. 66 4 = 1.73 . 52.6 31.5 - Frank Lampard. PL SUSPENDED, complete @ 27/7/20 Good results from manager & squad in transition. Made the top four and a Champions League spot. 18/19 - 21 9 08 . 63 39 24 .. 72 3 = 1.89 . 55.2 21.0 - Maurizio Sarri. Third place from a four way contest, secured a Champions League spot next term, albeit winning the Europa League qualified as well. 17/18 - 21 7 10 . 62 38 24 .. 70 5 = 1.84 . 55.5 26.3 - Antonio Conte. Turned around an ailing squad to make them champions in his first year. Charismatic & clever the extrovert little Italian didn't really excel following those earlier assessments. 16/17 - 30 3 05 . 85 33 52 .. 93 1 = 2.44 . 78.9 13.1 - Antonio Conte. Change at Stamford Bridge had positive influences and anticipation was for stability plus success (AC spoke English well after just a few months). In the event cause & effect produced another title. 15/16 - 12 14 12 . 59 53 6 . 50 10 = 1.31 . 31.5 31.5 - Jose Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. Even a person not familiar with usual pecking order of the elite realised something had gone wrong this term. JM 'jumped ship' at end of the year and Guus Hiddink came in once more to calm waters. But seeing the final table was almost suspending disbelief. 14/15 - 26 9 03 . 73 32 41 .. 87 1 = 2.28 . 68.4 07.8 - Jose Mourinho. The SW6 outfit started favourite to win the title and mean & moody JM didn't disappoint pundits & punters alike for the second time around. Oh, also won the League Cup to boot. 13/14 - 25 7 06 . 71 27 44 .. 82 3 = 2.15 . 65.7 15.7 - Jose Mourinho. This season was all about Jose Mourinho in his first camaign back for Blues since 2007, albeit by his own special, exacting standards a third place finish went so close - but no cigar. 12/13 - 22 9 07 . 75 39 36 .. 75 3 = 1.97 . 57.8 18.4 11/12 - 18 10 10 65 46 19 .. 64 6 = 1.68 . 47.3 26.3 FA CUP from 11/12; winners, s-f, 5th rnd, 4th, q-f, runners-up, winners, 5th, runners-up, runners-up, runners-up, 3rd, s-f. LEAGUE CUP; 5th rnd, s-f, 5th, winners, 4th rnd, 4th, s-f, runners up, 4th, 4th, runners up, 3rd, runners up. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE; winners, gp, s-f, last 16, last 16, nq, last 16, nq, last 16, winners, q-f, q-f, nq. EUROPA LEAGUE; nq, winners, nq, nq, nq, nq, nq, winners, nq, nq, nq. * * * * * Falmer years - 2011 to 2017, no meetings Withdean Era - 1999 to 2011, no meetings H&A.
Chelsea - Away, Falmer Years: Prem 17/18-24/25, seasons 7-14 . . EFL Cup '23 Chelsea v Albion (A) from 17/18: 2-0 3-0 2-0 0-0 1-1 1-2 3-2 . . W = 1 D = 2 L = 4 . F5 A12 scorers: Welbeck 2 Enciso Buonanotte Pedro. memorable match: Season10 (A) - dug in when desperation required at very least a clean sheet. note: for home Falmer Years results & reports scroll further up. Season14, 8th Premier League (A) Sat 28/9/24 - tba Chelsea qualified for the revised Europa Conference League format after a relatively successful campaign in 23/24. They were runners up in the EFL Cup and s-f contestants in the FA Cup last term. Blues pre-season friendlies; US tour: Wrexham 2-2, Celtic l 1-4, Club America w 3-0, Man City l 2-4, R Madrid l 1-2. Then I Milan 1-1 (H). This Prem fixture was the 3rd of 19 away, coming midway thru the 10 game first quarter (Q1). The reverse game was 15 Feb '25 in mid season (Q2-3) - see home scroll further above. We had lost both matches last season during Dec '23 (A) & May '24 (H) and also earlier in the League Cup here during Sept '23. Last year we'd met during early December when on the wrong side of a five goal contest. We finished 11th 48pts, while Ch'sea were 6th 63pts. Now we had xpts and they had xpts in this opening phase. Our Prem record at Stamford Bridge versus Blues was; lll ddw l - in all seven seasons to date. Only one win from a scant sequence overall. They were a big club with revamped ongoing expectations as usual. Current away form was; W D L F A tba. Hosts home form was: W D L F A tba. At the moment Brighton were xth, while Chelsea were xth from 5 games played. In the last three campaigns we'd been placed 8, 8 & 7 after the start period (Q1). Albion were looking to avoid suffering a second successive defeat in SW London. Ch'sea had 8 players at Euro 24 finals in Germany during June. Blues were now tba drawn against 8 European clubs in the Europa Conf League. Their latest boss Enzo Maresca had spent around 228m on 11 new talents, plus an on loan player prior to the big kickoff and before the August window shut. In the EFL Cup .... Headline news this week was ...tba * match report: tba day after result stats: ht , goals , poss %-%, on target , off target , corners , fouls , yellows , subs , shape weather: . gate: . MoM: team: 23 Steele 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 5 Dunk 30 Estupinan 24 Adingra 27 Wieffer 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck subs: bench: 1 Verbruggen 3 Julio 4 Webster 6 Milner 9 Pedro 15 Moder 16 Sarmiento 20 Baleba 22 Mitoma 26 Ayari 28 Ferguson 34 Veltman 41 Hinshelwood squad: . injured: 7 March Prem P6 . W D L . F A . W D L . F A . Pt? Po? = x.xxpt/gm . W = xx% L = xx% Season13, 7th Premier League (A) Sun 3/12/23 - L 3-2 ~ Buonanotte, Pedro Brighton played Chelsea in Philadelphia as part of the PL Summer Series held in America during July '23. In a goal fest it was Blues who won 4-3 in front of a 65k+ crowd. The West London outfit next drew against Newcastle 1-1 & beat Fulham 2-0. Then drew with B Dortmund 1-1 in Chicago. Today this fixture was played following Seagulls fifth Europa League group match, where we'd qualified for k-o rounds. But hosts had failed to qualify for European competition this term so were spared that much busier schedule for once. Albion were 6th (62pts) and the capital unit 12th (44pts) last term, giving us a 18pts +ve difference. Since joining the elite, Brighton had finished 15, 17, 15, 16, 9, 6, while Chelsea were 5, 3, 4, 4, 3, 12. Hosts expected to be repositioned in European qualifying places by next May. Our Prem record at Stamford Bridge versus Blues was; lll ddw in six seasons to date. Three initial defeats stand out. Getting goals there was a problem we'd latterly hoped to have solved. Going into this early December match BHA were 8th and Chelsea were 10th from 13 played to date. They'd gotten in a brand-new manager at start of their campaign to help regain top six status. They had also spent 112m in the pre-Aug transfer window on 3 buys inc BHA ex-no.1 Rob Sanchez (25m), plus one undisclosed and one free. The Friday before Saturday's mid Aug opening-day kickoff Moises Caicedo was quoted in a late deal with Liverpool for a Prem record 111m. He'd been Blues main target in pre-season and so they upped their offer to out-bid Reds at 115m. In first 3 weeks of the campaign another 130m got spent on 4 more to bolster their much revised squad. Locals pukka Prem boss Mauricio Pochettino had so far got mixed PL results - but already did get past BHA in their EFL Cup R3 home tie (see below). Based on previous meetings Brighton were now looking for a second straight win at Chelsea. In the week prior to kickoff Albion were awarded freedom of the city of Brighton & Hove for our 600m input to the local economy. * match report: it all ended in heartbreak for travelling support as heavy rain washed away tears from witnessing an under the weather performance. Albion were 2 down inside half an hour to a couple of headers that were both defendable at corners (17 & 21 mins). Just prior to h-t Buonanotte pulled one back with a curling strike (43mins). Then Chelsea had a guy sent off for two bookables and an early bath. After turnaround Seagulls plugged away and De Zerbi put on 4 subs around the hour mark. But we went further behind when Ref went to the monitor and gave Blues a controvertial pen (65mins). Albion finished strongly and Pedro scored in stoppage with a header (92mins). There was still time to level but hosts held out against our late barrage. At the death we'd been beat and versus ten men too. It was tough to take, although we'd given ourselves a mountain to climb from shortly into the first half. Roberto thought Albion were better than opposition and was careful to be diplomatic about Ref, VAR or anything else to get him in more hot water. Brighton fans were understanding of the ongoing injury crisis so appreciated young players stepping into the fray. It was a baptism of fire for several inexperienced players, who could learn a lot in heat of battle. That would bolster squad depth for later when regulars returned fit for selection. Brighton are habitually always competitive and our style of play gives us hope for winning future contests. stats: ht 2-1, goals 17,21,65-45,92, poss 32%-68%, on target 5-9, off target 3-9, corners 5-8, fouls 16-12, yellows 3-5, red 1-0, subs 3-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: rain . gate: 39,647 away 3047 . MoM: Gilmour - lots of effort. team: 23 Steele 34 Veltman 29 van Hecke 3 Julio 41 Hinshelwood 40 Buonanotte 20 Baleba 11 Gilmour 24 Adingra 14 Lallana 28 Ferguson subs: 6 Milner 57 (41), 13 Gross 57 (20), 22 Mitoma 57 (40), 9 Pedro 57 (14), 47 Baker-Boaitey 84 (3) bench: 1 Verbruggen 15 Moder 52 Kavanagh 55 O'Mahony squad: 43 Samuels . ban: 5 Dunk 8 Dahoud . injured: 2 Lamptey 4 Webster 7 March 10 Enciso 18 Welbeck 30 Estupinan 31 Fati Prem P14 . W3 D3 L1 . F15 A10 . W3 D1 L3 . F15 A16 . Pt22 Po8 = 1.57pt/gm . W = 42.8% L = 28.5% Season13, EFL Cup R3 (A) Wed 27/9/23 - L 1-0 Albion entered the all-divisions annual early-season evening-knockout competition at the third round stage due to our participation in the Europa League this term. Bizzarely Blues hadn't qualified for Europe last term and so had already played in the southern section of the EFL Cup at the Bridge, beating Wimbledon 2-1 (H) R2. September was a busy month and Brighton were due in Marseille next midweek, having hosted AEK Athens 2-3 (H) for our initial group B match last Thursday night. In the Prem Albion were currently 3rd but Blues merely 14th after 6 fixtures played thus far. Roberto de Zerbi was rotating the squad from day1 and anticipated starting changes once more tonight. Brighton could posssibly be in 4 competitons at a later date if advancing thru both further League Cup rounds and Europa League group stage. De Zerbi was under no illusions as to degrees of difficulty for these diverse tasks. Everything BHA had achieved seemed to result from facing tough challenges to overcome, as the club realised its ambition as a new force in the elite. And a cup run did seem to register with fans as yet another good idea at this particular moment and so, bring it on! We would play big, bigger, or even super-big clubs in weeks ahead. * match report: it was goalless at halftime and Albion had missed chances to take the lead. We paid for failing to score when Blues netted soon after turnaround (50mins). We were then chasing a result and guess what? Travelling supporters were disappointed, Sussex tv viewers and radio listeners were left frustrated and neutrals wondered why Seagulls drew a blank after all that media hype about how great we were in front of goal. De Zerbi thought we played a good game, which kinda vindicated his starting selections & feeding in of subs. But there was a dearth of regular goal-scorers in play who might get names in papers next day. This tie was part of a learning curve for many players with limited apps, or large games-per-goal numbers (small needed) and/or zero goals records. In these circumstances keeping a clean sheet and nicking it was essential. But alas the ball broke the other way. We required to equalise at least, tho trying to do so just exposed inability to clinically finish attacking moves when competing in a single goal game. Maybe a deadly striker, prolific point or link man occurs naturally. And are worth their weight in gold, well silverware anyway. Brighton struggled to register on targets and/or take advantage of hosts defensive lapses. We certainly didn't have that killer instinct. Or what looked like a natural goal-getter. stats: ht 0-0, goal 50, poss 39%-61%, on target 4-2, off target 5-11, corners 5-8, fouls 6-16, yellows 1-2, subs 4-5, shape 4231-4231 weather: mild . gate: 37,518, away 3936 . MoM: ? - poor performance team: 1 Verbruggen 2 Lamptey 29 van Hecke 3 Julio 30 Estupinan (C) 8 Dahoud 20 Baleba 40 Buonanotte 31 Fati 22 Mitoma 9 Pedro subs: 7 March 45 (31), 11 Gilmour 64 (20), 18 Welbeck 64 (22), 41 Hinshelwood 70 (8), 14 Lallana 78 (40) bench: 23 Steele 5 Dunk 24 Adingra 34 Veltman squad: 4 Webster 28 Ferguson . injured: 6 Milner 10 Enciso 13 Gross 15 Moder Season12, 6th Premier League (A) Sat 15/4/23 - w 1-2 ~ Welbeck, Enciso. Due to previous postponements this fixture now marked end of the three-quarters stage Q3. Aferwards there were 9 matches left during April & May for the revised run in Q4. Following three straight defeats from our first formative years in the Prem, Seagulls mustered two subsequent basic draws and even notched a goal last term at Stamford Bridge (see away scroll below). We'd lost thrice there in Dec '17, Apr '19 and Sept '19 before parity in Apr '21 and Dec '21 (seasons 7-11). With enforced close-season change of ownership in southwest London, it begged the question; would status quo resume or not? Blues were now backed by big American based money, so they still presented a tough challenge for top-ten candidates like BHA to try and inflict in-play damage upon them. Graham Potter had gone there in Sept '22 (see home scroll above) but it proved very slow work in progress trying to lift the metropolitan giant out of mediocre mid-table Blues. In December under Roberto de Zerbi Albion were at a Dubai winter training camp during '22 WC finals. Since then Seagulls had been flying high in the table. Meanwhile Graham Potter got sacked during the first week of April. So on the face of it, we were now visiting a club left below the Prem pecking order of already occupied top-half places. What could destiny reveal? * match report: goals get scored in football, that's the purpose of the game, however, you don't exactly know how prior to the event. Albion were all over Blues like a crimson rash but it seemed the more we tried to score the less likely for one to happen. Then against run of play hosts netted off a deflected pot-shot (13mins). Seagulls huffed & puffed, losing two men to injuries, before exuding extra goalless efforts almost up to halftime. Welbeck finally got the leveller with a header from Gross' assist aimed to the far post (42mins). It was all Brighton in the second period from turnaround and yet more chances came... and went. Suddenly, in a moment away support shall recall for ever, Enciso unleashed a fizzing strike to the top corner from way down range (69mins). Game management was essential to the end because locals put on pukka prime personnel from the bench worth mega bucks. In contrast travellers subs were make-shift in numbers with PL2 youngsters. In a final push Seagulls tired legs were still attacking at the death. De Zerbi said, 'if we want to become bigger we have to improve in this respect.' So a worldy actually got us the points, the overall performance was up to speed and BHA were still on track to press for our best finish, maybe top six. Brighton fans were living the dream and some. stats: ht 1-1, goals 13-42,69, poss 42%-58%, on 2-10, off 6-16, corners 2-8, fouls 11-11, yellows 2-2, subs 5-3, shape 4231-4231 weather: sunny . gate: 40,126 (3019 away) . MoM: Sanchez - did what he had to. team: 1 Sanchez 34 Veltman 4 Webster 5 Dunk 20 Estupinan 7 March 13 Gross 10 Mac Allister 25 Caicedo 22 Mitoma 28 Ferguson. subs: 20 Enciso 28 (34), 18 Welbeck 39 (28), 29 van Hecke 86 (4) bench: 38 McGill (gk) 21 Undav 27 Gilmour 40 Buonanotte 42 Offiah 49 Moran injured: 2 Lamptey 14 Lallana 19 Sarmiento 23 Steele . squad: 15 Moder 26 Ayari (6 Colwill - on loan) Prem: P29 . W7 D3 L4 . F25 A14 . W7 D4 L4 . F29 A23 . Pt49 Po7 = 1.68pt/gm . W = 48.2% L = 27.5% Season11, 5th Premier League (A) Wed 29/12/21 - 1-1 ~ Welbeck. This fixture was not only right at end of the old year but initially marked as last on the list for playing each & every other club once by the halfway stage. Then covid caused 2 postponements during December, which altered that original schedule & reduced completed numbers. Looking thru our four previous results at the Bridge it was glaringly obvious we had a problem actually putting the ball into the goal there. Building on last term's nil-nil stalemate would mean hitting back of the net for a kickoff. Lack of signing a new striker during summer had been mitigated by better results, or at least not getting beat regularly. So time would tell during January whether our squad was bolstered with an extra pukka forward. Talking of big hitters, Blues boss Thomas Tuchel purchased goal machine Lukaku for about 100 mega bucks in August - so intended a realistic title challenge. At this stage of affairs they were 3rd, while we had climbed back to 9th from earlier dizzy summer heights. Go to Archive for a tale of this season so far in Stats - for facts & figs and players apps/goal records. * match report: Albion bagged a point in stoppage time to finally break their duck of not scoring at the Bridge. Welbeck came on as an impact sub and headed home a cross from Cucurella in dramatic late fashion (91min). Previously Blues led at halftime from a header when visitors failed to deal with their basic corner routine (28min). But although that lapse got punished Seagulls were good value for parity, with competitive stats registered at close of the day. Chances came and went at both ends but it seemed hosts would shade this hard fought contest by a single goal - until it deservedly became one each in injury time. Potter urged his men forward throughout and employed attacking tactics via the team pushing up field from gaining extra possession. Albion were fluid in shape and maintained momentum following subs and players repositioning. Everyone put in a shift, matching hosts for effort and endevour - see stats below. Travelling support went wild at that frantic climax coz it almost felt like a win. You couldn't make it up... but once again BHA had gotten something on travels from netting a late late goal. Stats: ht 1-0, goals 28-91, poss 47%-53%, on target 5-6, off target 6-12, corners 10-8, o/s 1-0, fouls 14-7, yellows 4-1, subs 3-3, shape 3421-3421 weather: mild . gate: 40,080, away 3012 . MoM: Bissouma - immense. team: 1 Sanchez, 2 Lamptey (12 Mwepu 66), 34 Veltman, 33 Burn, 3 Cucurella, 8 Bissouma Y, 14 Lallana, 20 March, 15 Moder (17 Alzate 80), 10 Mac Allister (18 Welbeck 80), 9 Maupay . bench: 23 Steele, 4 Webster, 24 Duffy, 13 Gross, 30 Richards, 58 Ferguson. squad: 7 Connolly . injured: 5 Dunk, 11 Trossard, 60 Sarmiento. Prem: P18 . W3 D3 L3 . F8 A9 . W2 D6 L1 . F9 A9 . Pt24 Po10 = 1.33pt/gm . W = 27.7% L = 22.2% Season10, 4th Premier League (A) Tue 20/4/21 - 0-0 Covid restrictions: no fans - (post-lockdown 3, T3/4/5 = 0 fans, home fans @ Tier 2 = 2k ). Visits to Stamford Bridge had proved fruitless and also goalless for Albion during three consecutive campaigns prior to today. So at this late April midweek evening juncture, scoring a goal would be progress of a sort - given desire for BHA to up the ante and later become a regular midtable club. Difference in class, derived from last decade's history, proved a disadvantage to Seagulls overall but for any given day, competing on an equal basis via achievable performance levels could give us something of a chance. In the event such a Prem gulf was figuratively bigger than ever this term and on paper Albion were again marked at short odds to get well beat once more. This was that Tuesday night when Chelsea fans protested outside Stamford Bridge about plans for the big six outfits to play in a proposed European Super League - so delaying ko time by 15mins. In the event the metropolitan club quickly pulled out with fellow Prem associates and it was all over bar issue of the high court writs. * match report: It was also another match in which Albion did not score but by hook or crook took a first point here via a goalless draw. Seagulls were defensively sound, pressed high up the pitch, threatened to score and did everything else right bar find the net. Hosts were reduced to few chances and it became a tactical battle of various shapes and of trying to find holes & spaces, as well as introducing impact subs during later stages. Visitors were always in the game, took play to locals when possible and racked up majority of off targets. Welbeck hit a post, Lallana & Bissouma went v close and Sanchez did his bit too down the other end. Brighton fans following broadcasts on pay tv or free radio were more than pleased to take a point, although disappointed that White got a second yellow in injury time to spoil an otherwise ok away evening at home. Potter was happy coz BHA were now 7pts clear of the d-z and Tony Bloom, Paul Barber and Dan Ashworth relieved that Chelsea had their eye back on the proverbial ball only after 90+ minutes were actually over. Whatever the correct diagnosis, Albion got a valuable first return on results here and it duly went into PL records. There has to be a reason to strive for the preceived unatainable status and BHA were an example of it this century - ask a Brighton fan for explanation. Stats: ht 0-0, goals nil, poss 64%-36%, on target 4-2, off target 3-9, corners 0-3, fouls 8-9, yellows 2-1, red 0-1, subs 3-3, shape 343-352 . Weather: dry Team: 26 Sanchez, 3 White R, 5 Dunk, 4 Webster, 34 Veltman, 13 Gross, 8 Bissouma, 33 Burn, 18 Welbeck (15 Moder 86), 10 Mac Alister (9 Maupay 74), 11 Trossard (14 Lallana 60) . Subs: 23 Steele, 17 Alzate, 16 Jahanbakhsh, 19 Izquierdo, 24 Propper, 29 Zeqiri . Squad: 6 Karbownik, 7 Connolly, 22 Tau, 25 Caicedo . Injured: 2 Lamptey, 20 March . MoM: tba Prem: P32 . W2 D8 L6 . F16 A19 . W5 D5 L6 . F17 A19 . Pt34 Po16 = 1.06pt/gm. Wins = 21.8%, Loss = 37.5% Season9, 3rd Premier League (A) - Sat 28/9/19 - L 2-0. The fall of fixtures spewed out by those proverbial Prem League computers last June meant Albion initially journeyed into London up the Fulham Road thru SW6. By digital twist of footy fate, 4 of our next 6 aways were also versus big-six giants. Those capital contests being over at Drayton Park in N5 & later up Bill Nicholson Way N17, for beginning & end of December. But we had to play them all at some time or other, so why not now? Last term's traumatic run-in had also included visits to Chelsea, Arsenal & Spurs, thus writing was now on these super-stadium walls for measurable improvement, in theory at least. Albion previously scored away on opening day but since failed to find the net and this stat loomed large prior to kickoff at the Bridge. Graham Potter wasn't expected to abandon his expansive method of play but keeping a clean sheet would go a long way toward any improvement in returns against one of these metropolitan giants. He had already introduced new players, put in youngsters, dropped previous regulars, reshaped the whole squad and sent all manner of 1st 11 group pros & U23s out on loan. It was a work in progress all right but the balance sheet thru this opening period (Q1) needed at least a point per game to track basic survival targets. Anything less and Albion were on the long road to an unhappy Xmas & New Year at the halfway stage, plus still with it all to do in 2020 (see Season9 Chelsea H above). Albion were outclassed, conceding a second half penalty (50min) and then a deflection (76min) to seal their fate. In fact the score could have been worse if not for Ryan with a series of saves. Potter changed things on turnaround after a goalless first half. Bong entered the fray and Alzate moved over to shore up the right side. But Blues kept cutting through us anyhow and it was just a question of law of averages that one incident would result in a goal. Seagulls were lacklustre up front and introduction of Connolly & Murray did little to improve matters. Potter's revised style of play gets BHA up to the box but after that it kinda falls flat. There is nobody capable of finding the net and past records show Brighton relied too much on Murray, who is now 36 and on the bench to boot. And reliance on scoring from set pieces has failed thus far as well. Defenders & midfielders are not taking chances and the vital killer instinct is missing for sure. Potter said, 'we were lucky to go in nil-nil at halftime.' Brighton fans thought we were lucky to get nought at end of the day. No clean sheet but a tell-tale fail to score... again. Stats; ht 0-0, goals 50,76, shape 433-541, poss 53%-47%, on target 10-1, off target 4-4, blocks 10-3, crosses 12-14, corners 5-2, o/s 1-2, tackles 18-20, fouls 5-13, yellow 2-3, subs 3-3 . Gate 40,683 away 2992 . MoM - Ryan . Weather - dry but breezy. 1 Ryan, 22 Montoya, 15 Webster Y, 5 Dunk, 33 Burn, 46 Alzate Y, 13 Gross, 6 Stephens, 8 Bissouma (3 Bong 46), 18 Mooy (44 Connolly 65), 7 Maupay Y (17 Murray 79) . Subs - 27 Button, 28 Baluta, 21 Schelotto, 16 Jahanbakhsh. Squad - 23 Steele . Injured - 4 Duffy, 11 Trossard, 14 Balogun, 19 Izquierdo, 20 March, 24 Propper, 30 Bernardo. Prem P7 . W0 D2 L1 F2 A4 . W1 D1 L2 F3 A6 . Pt6 Po16 = 0.85pt/gm. Wins = 14.2%, Loss = 42.8% Season8 2nd Premier League (A) - Wednesday 3/4/19 - L 3-0. The initial PL midseason match was rescheduled from Sat Feb 23rd because Blues reached the EFL Cup final, actually played on the Sunday of that weekend. The south-west London outfit was also still involved in the Europa League k-o stages, while Albion had very fortunately progressed into later domestic FA Cup rounds. Add to these the international week and hey-ho the fixture kinda got extra delayed beyond March, being squeezed into a very busy April run-in. Seagulls were not too hot on the road this term, so although playing the contest would complete their game in hand on other danger zone rivals, getting beat was the most likely outcome. Some Brighton fans thought Seagulls had taken their eyes off the ball anyway, what with the Wembley FA Cup semi-final looming on the next Saturday. And never more did we need points away from home than now to help preserve a credible campaign ending in survival rather than facing the drop. It all ended predictably when Seagulls were blown away by a better team with world class players doing what was required. A useful BHA defensive show in the first half got split assunder just before the interval (38min) and afterwards it was pretty much one way traffic. March limped off injured early on and Albion suffered penetration down that flank. Around the hour mark Blues put the game to bed with 2 quality strikes (60 & 64min). Hughton sent subs on but it was all over bar the crying in beer glasses on the way home. Hughton said, 'if we were a good enough team to take the game to them it would be wonderful but we're not. We needed to show more going forward and there were moments when we broke well. Regards what the players gave, I can't fault that.' Many Brighton fans were left frustrated, not perhaps with another expected away defeat but overall from a campaign that was only turning out like last year when we were now supposed to have a better squad. Stats; ht 1-0, goals 38,60,64, shape 433-451, poss 68%-32%, on target 4-1, off target 8-2, corners 7-1, fouls 5-9, yellow 0-0, subs 3-3. Gate 38,593, away 2844 . MoM - Bissouma . Weather - dry & cold. 1 Ryan, 2 Bruno, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong, 8 Bissouma, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March (11 Knockaert 31), 10 Andone (17 Murray 70), 16 Jahanbakhsh (30 Bernardo 75) . Subs - 27 Button, 33 Burn, 7 Kayal, 19 Izquierdo. Prem P31 . W6 D4 L5 F17 A16 . W3 D2 L11 F15 A30 . Pt33 Po15 = 1.06pt/gm. Wins = 29%, Loss = 51.6% Season7 1st Premier League (A) Tuesday 26/12/17 - L 2-0. Yes Brighton fans, it was the unique Boxing Day match and who would have thought merely a few years ago that Albion would visit Stamford Bridge for post Xmas festivities? This holiday fixture against defending champions also marked beginning of second half of Seagulls first PL season. And once again versus a top-six side, not many supporters anticipated BHA might obtain any sort of yuletide present in SW London. Albion's season had been going ok to date with 14pt gained at the Amex and 7pt on the road. The worst that could happen was to slip a couple of places but remain above the drop zone going into the last game of 2017. Albion held out for stalemate during the first half with a decent defensive display. But the clean sheet went west when they didn't hit the ground running immediately after the interval. Blues split the defence with a pinpoint cross and header and Seagulls were now chasing the game (46min). Next Stephens was booked in his role as holding midfielder. Then hosts put the contest out of visitors reach on the hour mark, via another headed goal from a set piece. In the last fifteen minutes both sides put subs on but effectively the one-sided match was over already. Hughton said, 'what you experience is consistent quality of ball in from set pieces, so you have to be more resolute in defence. It's about responsibility ultimately. You do work on the training pitch but it's about players doing it on the day.' Brighton fans could see the squad was struggling in the final third which put pressure on defence by giving the ball back constantly. Many supporters couldn't wait for January and hope new players would come in and do better in the goal-scoring department. Stats; shape 32311-4141, ht 0-0, goals 46,60, poss 67%-33%, on target 8-1, off target 10-4, corners 13-1, o/s 2-2, fouls 8-8, yellows 0-1, subs 3-3. Gate 41,568 (away 3001). 1 Ryan, 21 Schelotto, 22 Duffy, 5 Dunk (Capt), 29 Suttner, 20 March (11 Knockaert), 7 Kayal (13 Gross), 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 19 Izquierdo, 10 Hemed (17 Murray). P20 . W5 D6 L9 . F15 A25 . Pt21 Po12 = 1.05pt/gm . Wins = 20.0%, Loss = 45.0% CHELSEA @ home; Stamford Bridge. Seasn . W D L . F A GD . . Pt Po pt/gm %Pt . W% L% 24/25 - 0 1 1 . 1 3 -2 . 1 11 = 0.50 25.0 . 00.0 50.0 - Enzo Maresca @ 13/9/24 23/24 - 11 4 4 . 44 26 18 . 37 06 = 1.94 58.7 . 57.8 21.0 - Mauricio Pochettino 22/23 - 06 7 6 . 20 19 01 . 25 12 = 1.31 56.8 . 31.5 31.5 - Frank Lampard, Graham Potter & Thomas Tuchel 21/22 - 09 7 3 . 37 22 15 . 34 03 = 1.78 45.9 . 47.3 15.7 - Thomas Tuchel 20/21 - 09 6 4 . 31 18 13 . 33 04 = 1.73 49.2 . 47.3 21.0 - Frank Lampard & Thomas Tuchel. 19/20 - 11 3 5 . 30 16 14 . 36 04 = 1.89 54.5 . 57.8 26.3 - Frank Lampard, finish 27/7/20. 18/19 - 12 6 1 . 39 12 27 . 42 03 = 2.21 58.3 . 63.1 05.2 - Maurizio Sarri. 17/18 - 11 4 4 . 30 16 14 . 37 05 = 1.94 52.8 . 57.8 21.0 - Antonio Conte. 16/17 - 17 0 2 . 55 17 38 . 51 01 = 2.68 54.8 . 89.4 10.5 - Antonio Conte. 15/16 - 05 9 5 . 32 30 02 . 24 10 = 1.26 48.0 . 26.3 26.3 - J Mourinho & Guus Hiddink. 14/15 - 15 4 0 . 36 09 27 . 49 01 = 2.57 56.3 . 78.9 00.0 - Jose Mourinho 13/14 - 15 3 1 . 43 11 32 . 48 03 = 2.52 58.5 . 78.9 05.2 - Jose Mourinho. * * * * * Falmer years, 2011 to 2017 - no visits to Stamford Bridge. Withdean era, 1999 to 2011 - no visits.
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