10-men Chelsea hold on against Brighton

The ten men of Chelsea held on to a 3-2 victory in an enjoyable clash at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.

The home side started the better at Stamford Bridge and were well worth their opening goals 17 minutes into the game. A corner from the right was kept alive by Benoît Badiashile who hooked the ball back towards the six-yard box where Enzo Fernández was able to head in from close range.

Just four minutes later, the Blues were 2-0 up from another corner. This time it was Nicolas Jackson who first connected to the ball with Levi Colwill’s effort crossing the line before it was cleared by the Brighton defence.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side took a long time to get back into the game and pulled one back in the 43rd minute when Facundo Buonanotte cut inside and curled an effort past former Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sánchez.

The complexion of the game changed in the 45th minute when Conor Gallagher, wearing the captain’s armband, was given his second yellow card of the game.

The Seagulls didn’t make enough of their numerical advantage in the second half and found themselves further behind with just over an hour gone. Substitute James Milner’s challenge on Mykhaylo Mudryk was initially ignored by Craig Pawson but the official changed his mind after looking at the VAR replay.

Fernández made no mistake from 12 yards as he fired his penalty past Jason Steele.

Brighton did give themselves hope late on when Milner’s corner from the left was headed in by fellow substitute João Pedro at the near post. 

The visitors thought they had a penalty in the final minute of ten additional of stoppage time when Colwill was deemed to have used his hand to intercept a Brighton cross. 

Again VAR intervened and with one angle shown, Pawson was happy enough to reverse the decision allowing Chelsea to see out their narrow lead.

xG: Chelsea (2.13) 3-2 (1.11) Brighton & Hove Albion

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Chelsea FC (@chelseafc)