Chelsea travel to Brighton to continue their momentum from the Manchester City victory. But the trip may not be as easy as it seems on paper.
Brighton flirted with promotion for years before finally achieving their goal in 2017. Despite having a pretty unappealing side, Chris Hughton has kept the team in the league and made them a bit of a wild card.
Brighton is not a team to steal headlines from time to time like Bournemouth. Nor are they a team that is in the headlines for the wrong reasons like West Ham often is. No, Brighton is merely there and most forget about them until they have to play them.
But that is often where Hughton and Brighton shine. No one really pays attention to them or knows what to expect. They are often faced with a bigger challenge than anticipated. Maurizio Sarri and Chelsea must be aware of this first and foremost.
Part of what makes Brighton so unassuming is their formation. They play in either a very standard 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-4-1 depending on the opponent’s midfield set up. Given the importance of Jorginho and the unusual set up of Chelsea’s midfield (in the Premier League anyways) both formations could be likely as likely as one another.
Brighton is one of the league’s best defensive teams due to their formations’ natural ability to get compact. They will allow space between the lines but they will allow little space in behind. They are very, very good at winning the ball back from this shape and if Chelsea is not playing at full Sarrismo early and often, the Blues could struggle mightily to put anything together.
Offensively, Brighton will look to counter in a pretty standard old school English fashion. Long balls to the wingers who try to break through high lines followed by crosses into the box for their striker(s). This can catch some teams unaware, but often it just leads to losing the ball. Were they not good at winning the ball back and defending, they likely would have been relegated last season because they simply are not a goal scoring team.
Their biggest strength is being able to get organized defensively quickly and win the ball back with ease. Defense is their bread and butter and if they had a better method of attack they could really rise up the league. Teams like Chelsea (teams that play with the ball more often than not) find their flow interrupted often as they look for ways through.
Their biggest weakness is that they are not good at attacking. They can defend all day but they have no ideas as to how to attack an opponent efficiently. Chelsea should, if all is going as it should, have little worries when it comes to defending.
If Chelsea can play Sarrismo, and not the knock-off cheap version they often fall into, this match should be a cake walk if not a massacre. Fast, vertical possession should wreck Brighton’s press and shape and leave them with little way to stop it. But if Chelsea play possession for possession’s sake, they will find their rhythm interrupted and they will see the fullbacks challenged with a ton of long balls.
Hughton has figured out the equation to keeping his team in the Premier League. But the other half (the attacking half) still alludes him as his team is very much the stereotypical midtable side no one notices. The match will be trickier than anticipated but it will hardly be difficult if the Blues play as they can.