Post Match report for the Chelsea game - Wednesday, 1st January 2020

PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton v Chelsea - 1/1/20, P21.

ALBION WAKE UP TO REALITY AT START OF THE TWENTIES


VENUE: the Amex, Falmer - eleventh home match of twenty-one fixtures to date.
RESULT: 1-1 ~ Jahanbakhsh . (h-t 0-1) . SHAPE: 4-3-2-1 .
REF: kept cards concealed until could not ignore their need to punish miscreants.

PRE-KICKOFF: it was very beginning of a new decade and Brighton fans could reflect upon how far collectively we and the football club had come since turn of this century. For further information go to our Stats page tabs and click on Archive, Clubs, Falmer Diary & Guide.
Metaphorically it had been an incredible journey from gutter to the stars, while factually BHA was still tracing an upward curve in the sports entertainment & results business.
GATE: 30,559 . WEATHER: dry & still but gloomy.


GRAHAM POTTER completed that busy pre-Xmas to New Year schedule with a first domestic reverse Prem fixture against one of the big six. Whether the following display would measure actual improvement in a demanding division was open to conjecture. But expectations were this current match-day squad needed to be at top of their game to get rewarded.
Webster & Alzate came back into the starting eleven. Connolly sat among substitutes. Murray did not make the match-day squad.

TEAM . . . . . . . . . 1 Ryan
. 22 Montoya, 15 Webster, 5 Dunk, 33 Burn
. . . 8 Bissouma, 24 Propper, 46 Alzate
. . . 11 Trossard, 7 Maupay, 18 Mooy

BENCH: 27 Button, 30 Bernardo (22), 4 Duffy, 6 Stephens, 13 Gross, 16 Jahanbakhsh (68), 44 Connolly (46). .


GOALS: 10 - 0-1. Visitors corner went unchallenged at the far post but the second ball got scrambled home.
84 - 1-1. A corner to the back post is headed across by Dunk and JAHANBAKHSH performs a positive overhead kick.


INCIDENTS: 20 - Burn appears to suffer a shoulder injury following an aerial challenge.

YELLOWS: 71 - Dunk lunged in. 91 - Maupay gets frustrated.

SUBS: 22 - Bernardo replaces Burn. 46 - Connolly comes on for Bissouma. 68 - Jahanbakhsh takes to the field while Mooy is withdrawn.


SYNOPSIS: hosts conceded early, so it became yet another exercise in just chasing the game. The away outfit were soon in overall control while locals toiled to find any rhythm, fluency and/or offensive momentum.
Injury to Burn was also an opportunity to regroup and reshape but Albion continued with narrow formation, thus allowing more free space to opposition on flanks.
As the break loomed hosts upped work rate but merely registered a single shot on target during forty-five plus minutes. Seagulls seemed slightly weak against a determined and committed away side.
Potter made an immediate alteration on turnaround when introducing a second striker in going over to 433. This match remained as a single goal version of events ongoing through the hour mark, with locals trying to level although visitors always carried a threat.
Potter took the second unforced change with over twenty minutes to go when removing one from midfield for a wingman, with preference now for 442.
Equalising late on, following home pressure, sets up a frantic finish of open-ended play.
At end of the contest, finishing all square was no disgrace against a club we historically find very difficult to defeat.
MoM - Maupay, tireless front running and movement.

NUMBERS: poss 48%-52%, on target 5-5, off target 11-11, corners 5-3, fouls 8-15, yellows 2-3, subs 3-2.

FS