Date: 21st January 2018 at 1:13pm
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A Blue Up North reviews our big win away at Brighton.

Saturday lunchtime saw Chelsea travel down to the south coast for a Premier League match away to Brighton and Hove Albion. The home side have only lost once in their last 10 home league matches dating back to August and after recording only 5 draws so far in 2018, this was not as easy a fixture for The Blues than it may look on paper.

Antonio Conte was missing Alvaro Morata and Pedro due to suspension as well as Thibaut Courtois, Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas due to injury. The manager opted for a 3-4-3 with Eden Hazard and Willian flanking Michy Batshuayi in attack.

Chris Hughton also made fairly significant changes. In an attempt to energise his side in order to create more chances, the Brighton manager opted for a back 3 and play with more forward playing wing backs.

However his plans and week of training for this match was blown away by a blue whirlwind in the first 6 minutes. The mobility and interplay between Chelsea’s front 3 created the space and the impetus for the whole side to find space and their one touch football tore through the home side.

The build up play for the first goal was exquisite but when the ball fell to Hazard in the penalty box, he brilliantly shimmied to make a yard and rifled the ball in. Then a couple of majestic back flicks from Hazard and Batshauyi on the edge of the Brighton box created the space for Willian to rifle in an unstoppable shot. 2-0. Only 6 minutes on the clock.

Chelsea continued to look very purposeful every time they went on the attack and you would’ve thought a 4-0 final score was a sign of a very one sided affair. However, Brighton regrouped after the original storm and managed to look threatening at times themselves. The woodwork, an excellent Caballero save and 2 penalty shouts all fell in the away side’s favour all indicated how hard the home side tried to get back into the match. However Brighton are the league’s second worst performers in front of goal in that they have only scored 17 times now in 24 league appearances.

Even with the enforced change in Chelsea’s defence early in the second half with David Luiz replacing a clearly concussed Andreas Christensen, The Blues managed to keep another clean sheet. Late counter attacking goals from Hazard and Victor Moses completed the scoring but Brighton did not deserve to lose by such a wide margin and played better than the final 4-0 score.

However, worryingly for them The Seagulls have only won one of the last 12 league games and haven’t even scored in 8 of them. Hughton will be hoping that his new signing will make a goal scoring impact as his side try to keep above the relegation zone.

Hazard will receive most of the plaudits after his display and rightly so. But this was very much a team effort. Willian’s running and trickery was invaluable in the victory and the Brazilian is on a great run of form. That is now 3 goals and 5 assists in his last 5 league appearances. Late substitute Charly Musonda made a fantastic cameo including a sublime through ball for Moses to convert Chelsea’s 4th goal.

Batshauyi also enjoyed a much improved performance. Not only did this match become his first full 90 minute run out in the Premier League but with much closer support he excelled in the more intricate play and regularly looked a threat in the opponent’s area. He clearly prefers the role in the centre of 3 narrow attackers as opposed to a target man who needs to hold the ball up.

The win moved The Blues up to joint second in the league briefly and Conte will be very pleased with the result especially when he was missing 5 first team players for what could have been a tricky away match.

Written by Jon Ellis. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue

 

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