Chelsea vs Brighton & Hove Albion

Stamford Bridge is the venue as Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion go head-to-head in a mid-table Premier League showdown.

Mauricio Pochettino cut a frustrated character after Newcastle United’s thumping 4-1 win against his Chelsea side last weekend condemned him to his joint-heaviest Premier League defeat. More importantly, that result knocked the ‘Blues’ down from impressive back-to-back league results against Manchester City (4-4) and Tottenham (4-1), leaving them a whopping 12 points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa at the start of this round. The impending home return won’t inspire much confidence in Pochettino’s corner, considering his men have only won once in their seven Premier League outings at Stamford Bridge this season (D3, L3). Brighton’s visit could pour more misery on Chelsea as they’re winless in their last three top-flight H2Hs on home turf (D2, L1), including a 2-1 defeat in this corresponding fixture in 2022/23.

On the other hand, visiting Brighton ran riot at Nottingham Forest last weekend, pulling off a 3-2 win to end an underwhelming six-game winless streak in the Premier League (D4, L2). Confidence will be at an all-time high as a 1-0 win at AEK Athens in the follow-up helped the ‘Seagulls’ progress into the Europa League knockout stages in their maiden European campaign. Against the backdrop of a low-scoring triumph in Greece, high scoring could be in store here, with Brighton’s last eight Premier League away matches seeing both teams on the scoresheet (W3, D1, L4). Roberto De Zerbi’s side keeping their end of the bargain and finding the net is a virtual certainty, considering their last scoring blank in the division dates back to February.