Preview: Brighton vs Chelsea – stats, team news, line-ups

Liam Rosenior’s floundering Chelsea journey to the south coast to tackle Brighton & Hove Albion within the hopes of halting their current free fall down the Premier League desk.

The Blues have misplaced their approach underneath Rosenior’s management and can tackle Brighton on the again of 4 consecutive Premier League defeats, culminating in a current 1-0 loss to Manchester United.

In the meantime, Brighton will host their London counterparts on the again of a four-match unbeaten streak.

The Seagulls will fancy their probabilities of stretching their spectacular run even additional, contemplating that Chelsea’s newest fixtures and outcomes have been nothing to write down house about.

Match Preview

Brighton couldn’t have picked a greater time to kick-start a resurgence as Fabian Hurzeler’s aspect ramp up their quest to safe European soccer.

Since snapping an appalling six-match winless streak within the Premier League (D3, L3) with a 2-0 win towards Brentford on the Gtech Group Stadium, the Seagulls have been on an upward trajectory.

Hurzeler’s aspect have been in improbable kind since they had been torn aside by Liverpool within the FA Cup fourth spherical, with the Reds claiming a thumping 3-0 victory at Anfield.

Nevertheless, solely Arsenal have managed to get the higher of the Seagulls since, with the hosts successful 5 out of seven league video games (D1, L1).

That slender 1-0 house defeat towards Arsenal proved to be the catalyst for a subsequent three-game successful streak that included a revenge-claiming 2-1 victory over Liverpool.

Brighton did not preserve that run going after they visited Tottenham Hotspur in North London as their former supervisor, Roberto De Zerbi, claimed some extent towards his former employers.

Nevertheless, Brighton will fancy their probabilities of returning to successful methods when Chelsea come knocking, given their spectacular file towards the Blues.

Brighton have come out on high of their final two conferences with Chelsea and have misplaced simply considered one of their final 4 video games towards the Blues (W2, D1).

In the meantime, Chelsea can’t appear to get it collectively lengthy sufficient to choose up a win, with the Blues now winless in 4 consecutive Premier League video games.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat towards United was the most recent in a protracted line of horrendous performances which have all however ended Chelsea’s hopes of securing Champions League soccer.

Matheus Cunha’s well-taken strike from a Bruno Fernandes cutback on the stroke of half-time was sufficient to sentence Chelsea to back-to-back defeats following their earlier humiliation at house to Manchester Metropolis.

That defeat stretched their winless streak on house turf to 5 video games (D2, L3) and in addition marked their sixth defeat of their final seven video games (W1).

Their solely victory in that disastrous run of kind got here towards League One opponent Port Vale within the FA Cup, with the Blues flexing their muscle in a riotous 7-0 win at Stamford Bridge.

As if dropping 4 consecutive video games wasn’t sufficient, Chelsea have additionally managed only one win from their final eight league video games (D2, L5), beating Aston Villa 4-1 in Birmingham.

In the intervening time, Rosenior nonetheless retains the religion of the membership hierarchy however a fifth consecutive defeat might spell the tip of his ill-fated tenure in West London.

Workforce Information

Brighton are sweating over the health of Diego Gomez and Kaoru Mitoma who had been compelled off injured towards Tottenham.

On the intense aspect, they might welcome Lewis Dunk again within the beginning line-up after the Englishman missed the Tottenham journey resulting from a one-match suspension.

In the meantime, Chelsea added Estevao and Enzo Fernandez to their lengthy listing of absentees, with each gamers coming off injured within the defeat to United.

The Blues had been already lacking Reece James, Levi Colwill, and Jamie Gittens.

Brighton & Hove Albion potential line-ups:

(4-2-3-1): Bart Verbruggen; Ferdi Kadioglu, Lewis Dunk, Jan Paul van Hecke, Mats Wieffer; Pascal Gross, Yasin Ayari; Kaoru Mitoma, Jack Hinshelwood, Yankuba Minteh; Danny Welbeck.

Chelsea potential line-ups:

(4-2-3-1): Robert Sanchez; Malo Gusto, Jorrel Hato, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella; Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Alejandro Garnacho, Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto; Liam Delap.