Match Summary
Here’s the lineup of both teams.
Brighton literally smashed Chelsea. Fabian Hürzeler tactically outplayed Enzo Maresca. Chelsea began the game really well by playing out from the back to beat man-oriented high pressing, creating a few chances. However, Brighton weren’t the team who can only press high, but they were also able to organise themselves in a compact block with a 5-4-1 system. The block was compact and high and they reacted well to the opposition back passes to push the lines up and transition into man for man pressing was extremely seamless. After regaining their momentum, Brighton scored the first goal from the long ball played by Verbruggen to Mitoma who controlled the ball like Dennis Bergkamp. Chelsea were about to equalise but the goal was ruled out by the foul made by Enzo Fernández. Immediately after that, the second goal for Brighton came from the deflected ball inside the Chelsea’s box. Chelsea tried to win the ball as high as possible, but the intensity didn’t follow. Brighton easily bypassed the press and scored the third goal to finish the game. This match showed how well Brighton are organised as a team and the struggle of Maresca’s team.
0-15mins
The dominance in possession
The game had already a clear image in the first few minutes. Chelsea tried to play out from the back and Brighton went man for man to apply pressure.
As usual, to form the 3-2-5 system, Chelsea tweaked some positions and in this game, the right fullback Gusto came inside. To clarify the man to mark, Brighton also adjusted the shape as the right winger Minteh dropped back to form the back five against Chelsea’s front five.
The early stage of the game is often favourable for the team who wants to apply pressure with high intensity thanks to the fresh legs, but Chelsea had quite often beaten the opposition pressing and created chances.
In the right side of Chelsea, Gusto made some great overlapping runs to exploit the space in behind the opposition back line, leading fast breaks, which resulted in the shots from Palmer.
This threat forced Brighton to sit deeper in the 5-4-1 system quite often, but Brighton always sought any opportunities to regain yards, so as soon as Chelsea made back passes, they squeezed up and went man for man high pressing. And also, it should be mentioned here that like the sequence in 12:30, Brighton could sometimes win the ball high up the pitch and created chances to take shots.
However, it is not only Brighton who made some successful pressing. Chelsea also pressed high and caused troubles for Brighton. The striker Palmer (not a striker but in the position of a striker) forced Brighton to play to their left by standing by the right centre back Van Hecke and the right winger Madueke made curved runs to press on Webster.
And as it is highlighted in the illustration, Caicedo’s ability to cover large area and win the duel to regain the ball was incredible and the key for Chelsea’s pressing.
Overall, as the stats of the possession in the first 10 minutes says, Chelsea who had 76% of the possession in that period seemed to start the game well.
15-30mins
Find Mitoma
But it was Brighton who scored the first one. They found the way to play through Chelsea’s pressing.
They fully understood how to give the ball to Van Hecke by using third man combinations and Van Hecke played into Rutter who dropped to be a spare player in between the lines and drove inside to play to Mitoma in behind the back line.
And the goal came from similar idea, finding Mitoma, but this time from Verbruggen, the goalkeeper. His pace and control of the ball was incredible and it was a valuable opening goal as the opposition seemed to begin the game comfortably.
30-45mins
Bit of luck inside each box
Chelsea was not too bad so far and actually they were about to equalise. But the header from Fernández was ruled out because he pushed the defender. After Brighton scored, Chelsea could get more time in the final third and they put the ball in the goal, but it was bit unlucky for them. Another unlucky thing was Brighton found the second immediately after the Fernández’s header. It was a deflected ball which Minteh struck, so the difference of (but of) luck made the difference in the last 15 minutes of the first half.
45-60mins
Became more offensive but not result yet
After the break, Chelsea became more offensive to overcome two goals lead taken by Brighton and they put Gusto in the more advanced position.
As Brighton set a compact 5-4-1 block to retain the lead, Chelsea didn’t need to have five players to build, so they let Gusto play in between the lines. But the consequence is still zero shots on target.
60-75mins
No intensity and Brighton’s counter
After about 17 minutes of the second half, Brighton found another to finish the game. When out of possession, Chelsea tried to press high to win the ball to attack, but the intensity was hugely lacked, which made it super easy for Brighton to play through and Minteh scored the third goal for them.
Similar to the first half, Rutter received the ball in between the lines and played to Mitoma. Even though the initial attack was defended, but from the second attack, they found the net.
75-90mins
It is over
Nothing to mention in this period. The game was already over when Brighton scored the third goal and no energy was left in Maresca’s men.
