Brighton vs Chelsea — Premier League 2020/21 — Match preview
“And Bayern München have been crowded as the new King of Europe in what is considered as the longest season in football history…”
*turn off the TV*
Ah… It’s time to take a rest. What a season that was, eh?
*less than two weeks later…*
“A new season is now upon us with teams across England looking to prepare for the upcoming 2020/21 season.”
Wait, what? The season literally ended just two weeks earlier! Well, in that case, let’s get the wheel rolling! Literally, let’s get the wheel rolling ’cause it is going to be a long ride up until the end of the 2022/23 season.
With the first gameweek of the Premier League is just days away, it is worth looking at a clash that will surely bring lots of excitement to both sets of fans. Chelsea will return to Brighton’s AMEX Stadium on Monday after only secured a draw in their friendly at the end of August. Both Frank Lampard and Graham Potter will look forward to a good start for their respective teams, while it is a match where we will have a chance to look at several new signings that both teams have secured during the summer window.
Team news
Brighton & Hove Albion
In his press conference, Potter confirmed Brighton will welcome Chelsea to their home stadium without two of their key players. Dutch midfielder Davy Pröpper is currently doubtful as he continues to recover from his Achilles injury. He also needs to be check as they are moving closer to the match and Potter might not take the risk to play him due to his fitness. Jose Izquierdo is another absence that is confirmed since he is still recovering from a knee injury.
Another player who is also remains on the sideline due to a knee injury is Florin Andone as he suffered the injury while playing on loan at Galatasaray. Potter mentioned about Andone’s availability as he fears the Romanian striker might not be available until at least January. Back-up goalkeeper Christian Walton is the fourth player to be remained on the sideline after he injured his ankle from an awkward fall in the friendly against Chelsea at the end of August.
With Ben White committing his future at Brighton for another five year, he will be one of Potter’s first-team choices among a back line that saw Shane Duffy went on loan to Celtic due to falling down the picking order. He will start on the right-hand side alongside Adam Webster and Lewis Dunk, who played alongside him against Chelsea just weeks earlier.
On the left-hand side, Solly March will definitely start for Brighton while Veltman should make his debut for the club on the opposite wing ahead of Tariq Lamptey due to his fitness concern after returning from international duty. Aposition that Potter will have a tough time to choose is the left-sided central midfielder where Steven Alzate and Dale Stephens will be contested for the starting spot. Experience might be the key for Brighton to win, which means Stephens might be his preferred choice.
Chelsea
After a season with no major transfer deals due to a transfer embargo, Chelsea have spent big this season and there are no signs that they will stop their spending spree. But with the opening match edging closer, Lampard has confirmed they will travel to the South Coast without three new signings.
Ben Chilwell remained on the sideline after he suffered an injury during the end period of last season. Hakim Ziyech was fully fit before their friendly against Brighton, but an injury that he suffered during the match kept him out for this match. Meanwhile, Thiago Silva has just returned from his holiday and will only train with the team from the weekend, meaning that he does not have full fitness to start the match.
Mateo Kovačić will serve his suspension after got sent off in their FA Cup match against Arsenal, and Billy Gilmour won’t be able to play due to his injury. But, there is positive news for Chelsea as Christian Pulisic is now fully fit and is available for selection for this match.
Along with Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner are fit to play and they are expected to make their debuts for the club. At the back, except Malang Sarr, no new signings are available for selection and Lampard might choose to keep the back line that helped them finished 4th last season. Antonio Rüdiger will be one of his first-choices to start, but the position alongside him will be contested by Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta.
Since Kovačić is not available to play and Conor Gallagher is heading out on loan, Lampard might want to switch his attention to Jorginho and allowing N’Golo Kante to play in a more flexible role. Havertz will provide support for the team between the channels and he will also look to exploit the space that Werner creates for him.
Brighton’s build-up and attacking play vs Chelsea’s defence
One of Brighton’s advantages this season is having a good depth of centre-backs who are comfortable with the ball amid the fact that they only have one left-footed centre-back in Dan Burn. The return of Ben White after a successful loan spell at Leeds United gives Brighton’s back line a massive boost, and while he might not be used as a centre-back often, but Joël Veltman adds more depth to an eye-watering back line.
Potter’s decision to play with a back five allows Brighton to capitalise the advantage that they have at the back and it is expected that they will play out from the back on more occasions. They did exactly what is being mentioned above as the centre-backs formed a passing network with Steven Alzate and Yves Bissouma to progress the ball.
The players’ positioning was also worth noticing as both central midfielders tended to look to position just behind Chelsea’s attacking midfielders to receive the ball. This would allow Alzate and Bissouma to create a 3v2 situation and pin them down in case Chelsea’s wingers would look to move forward and press the outside centre-backs. Furthermore, should Adam Lallana drop deep to receive the ball when either of Brighton’s central midfielders receive the ball, they would be able to move the ball in between the channels quicker.
On the other hand, with March is being considered to play on the left-wing, he will provide pacey overlapping runs and a possible attacking option when both Stephens and Maupay stay in the central area. In order to provide the ball for his attacking runs (March’s positioning is expected to be higher up the pitch compared to Veltman on the opposite wing), Webster is encouraged to move towards the left half-space while White and Dunk will shift slightly inwards to cover the central area. Webster’s passing range is expected to benefit the team when they attack down the left-hand side, and should they have more attacking support for March, it will put James under more defensive pressure.
Not only can Brighton’s centre-backs make short passes to attack the channels in between Chelsea’s defensive shape, they can also make long passes that can find either Maupay or Trossard in behind the opposition’s last defensive line. They will aim to send the long passes towards Chelsea’s final third to encourage Maupay and Trossard to beat their marking man using their pace and attack the space behind the defensive line.
Both Dunk and Webster have registered a decent number of long passes per 90 minutes last season with 24.4 (at a success rate of 78.3%) and 21.6 (77.2%) long passes per 90 respectively (according to FBRef). In both of their passes map below against Sheffield United and Liverpool last season, it is evident that most of their passes were targeted towards either wing and it will be something that both player will look to take advantage of when they welcome Chelsea to their home stadium.
Meanwhile, for White, the direction of his long passes against Stoke City were mostly towards the penalty area for Patrick Bamford. But Maupay is not the type of striker who likes to play with his back to goal or has the physicality to hold off the pressure of the opposition’s defender and receive the ball like Bamford. Therefore, he might have to adjust the target for his long passes this season in order to exploit Maupay and Trossard’s pace or Lallana’s positioning.
But before they can look to make passes that can start an attack for the team, Brighton’s centre-backs need to look at how they can beat Chelsea’s press. Their opponent for their opening week of the Premier League will look to press high up the pitch, but they will not look to win the ball in an aggressive way. Still, their man-to-man pressing system will prevent Brighton’s centre-backs from having too many passing options at the back.
In Chelsea’s preferred state when pressing, both wingers will look to push forward and press Webster and White. Meanwhile, their attacking midfielder, Havertz, will aim to mark Bissouma tightly while providing support for Kante and Jorginho, who will press Lallana and Alzate should they drop deep to receive the ball.
Brighton can benefit from Chelsea’s pressing system, though, given that their ball-sided wing-back is encouraged to push forward and press the wing-back if he decides to stay deep. As mentioned earlier, Brighton’s centre-backs have proven that they are competent to make long passes to find advanced options up front. It would require them to get pass their man first to bypass the pressure from the attacking trio, but it would put them in space where they can scan the field and look for potential receivers.
Meanwhile, with Veltman staying slightly deeper than March, he will drag Alonso out of his position, similar to the situation above. This put Chelsea in a situation where they would have to defend with a back-three with James staying back to provide support. If James also moves forward to involve in a 1v1 situation with March, both Maupay and Trossard can capitalise Rüdiger and Christensen’s disadvantage of lacking pace to move in behind and dragging them back along the way. March, therefore, can use his pace to get past James and receive Dunk’s long pass, which will set up a 3v2 counter-attacking situation in which Brighton will have a slight advantage thanks to the pace of their attackers.
But, should that move fail to be executed, Brighton can also look to exploit Chelsea’s 4–4–2 mid-to-deep block. If Brighton have the ball inside their half, Chelsea players will look to drop back into a mid-block and close the space in between their defensive lines. This will prevent Brighton from overloading that area using their midfielders, still, the home side can have another solution that they can use.
Both Webster and White are able to dribble the ball forward and this allows the midfielders to look to position themselves in space where they can play short one-twos to bypass the press. They can also look to move wide and attempt to match Chelsea’s number if the away side opt to overload the wing. In that case, they will act as dummies to pin down Chelsea players like Maupay in the situation below. It will allow other attackers like Trossard to move in behind and pick up the through ball from either Webster or White to progress into the final third.
Chelsea’s build-up and attacking play vs Brighton’s defence
Chelsea had had a tough time trying to find a way into Brighton’s 16-yard box back when they played against each other at the end of August. Brilliant vision from Ziyech allowed the Moroccan midfielder to find Hudson-Odoi inside the box from an early cross before the English youngster assisted Werner’s first goal for the club. But with the absence of Ziyech, Chelsea will have to find other ways to get the ball into Brighton’s box ahead of their opening match in the Premier League.
During their build-up phase, Chelsea centre-backs and central midfielders tend to form a passing block near the halfway line with both wing-backs stay slightly deep to provide possible passing options to either flank. Still, it is expected that Jorginho will stay deeper than Kante to allow the Italian midfielder to take advantage of his passing range. Meanwhile, Kante will look to roam from his position more often and look to position himself in between the channels.
With Brighton opt not to press high up the pitch, Chelsea centre-backs will have plenty of space to play out from the back and attempt to find possible passing options in between Brighton’s defensive lines. But they need to be aware of the opposition’s intention of overloading the wide space should Chelsea distribute the ball wide, which will prevent the away side from progressing the ball into the final third. The defensive shape will shift towards the ball and look to overload the space in front of the box, preventing Chelsea wide players from making crosses or linking up out wide.
But it is possible for the away side to find a possible attacking option in Werner’s off-the-ball movement. On several occasions during their friendly in August, it was possible to see the former Leipzig forward dropped very deep, at times, close to the central midfielders to receive the ball from the centre-backs. This means that Werner will take on a more flexible role as he will be able to involve in the team’s build-up more often besides from his advanced forward role. With Havertz ready to make a debut for the club, the responsibility of dropping deep to receive the ball can also be rotated between them while the other stays forward and attempts to pin down Brighton’s centre-backs.
With Werner is able to roam from his position to receive the ball straight from the build-up phase, it is possible that he will drag one of Brighton’s centre-backs out of his position and create space behind his back for the attacking midfielder, in this case, Havertz, to capitalise. Havertz’s goal-scoring ability is already proven at Leverkusen, and with Jorginho, a midfielder who has good passing range, is also expected to play, the German midfielder should receive plenty of through passes that will set him up in a good scoring position.
This might also be one of the ways that Chelsea can look to exploit Brighton’s back-five and create space for the attackers to progress the ball towards the 16-yard box. Since Brighton have shown that they will look to play with a tight mid-to-low block and aim to overload the space in front of their box, Chelsea players are expected to have a hard time trying to link up with each other and create goal-scoring chances.
Chelsea will look to rely on Werner and Havertz’s positioning ability to create space between Brighton’s defensive lines and encourage both wingers to drift inwards to gain numerical superiority. Amid their heatmaps from last season indicating that they have the tendency to play out wide more often, but there are signs showing that they are willing to spend more time playing inside zone 14 and the local areas. Last season at Leipzig and Leverkusen respectively, both players have registered 2.67 and 3.55 live-ball passes that led to a shot attempt per 90 minutes (according to FBRef), respectively, which shows that they can not only scoring goals, but also creating shooting chances for their teammates.
Comparing those numbers to how Chelsea’s attacking midfielders have done last season, Werner and Havertz place second and third highest respectively, just after Callum Hudson-Odoi’s record of 3.65 live-ball passes per 90 minutes, but Hudson-Odoi had played in less matches than the German attacking duo. The other player who matched Werner’s record is Christian Pulisic, and he is expected to start alongside Chelsea’s new signings.
Since Ziyech won’t be available at least for this match, Havertz can also be considered to play out on the right-hand side while the attacking midfielder spot is saved for either Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Ross Barkley. The German midfielder will still offer the same quality and style of play while providing more creativity from out wide, allowing Werner to roam from his position.
Conclusion
With the return of the Premier League, this will be the ultimate test for Chelsea’s ambition of challenging for the title after spending big in the summer transfer window. Frank Lampard has shown that he can do well with a home-grown squad full of the club’s academy talents, but can he do it with a squad that is full of world class players who have proven themselves in different leagues across Europe? Time will reveal the answer, and everything start with their trip down to Brighton’s AMEX Stadium on Monday.
