Chelsea somehow managed to turn a Premier League match into a seven-goal thriller on Saturday night.
Despite having just 26% possession, the Blues scored four times to beat Brighton 4-3 at Stamford Bridge. It was another entertaining victory for Xabi Alonso, but also another reminder that Chelsea’s defense still has plenty of problems to solve.
The scoreline says Chelsea won. The performance says they made life much harder for themselves than necessary.
Before kick-off, Alonso made an interesting decision in goal.
Robert Sanchez struggled in Chelsea’s opening game, so the manager immediately turned to Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. Chelsea reportedly paid £7.5 million to bring him in, and incredibly, Martinez made his debut just five hours after his move was officially announced.
He lasted 35 minutes before conceding his first goal.
Chelsea, however, had already done serious damage by then.
Just four minutes into the game, Brighton’s defense gifted Chelsea the opener. A corner caused confusion between goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and defender Mats Wieffer, allowing the ball to fall perfectly for Lavia, who made no mistake from close range.
It was a special moment for the midfielder. After three years at Chelsea, Lavia finally scored his first goal for the club.
Chelsea then doubled their advantage in the 14th minute.
Rogers burst down the left and beat Wieffer before cutting the ball back into the box. Pedro Neto arrived at the far post and calmly finished to make it 2-0.
The funny thing? Chelsea had only around 27% possession at that point.
They barely had the ball, yet they were already two goals ahead.
And they weren’t finished.
In the 32nd minute, Hato won possession high up the pitch and launched a quick counterattack. He eventually found Joao Pedro, who calmly placed the ball into the far corner.
3-0 after just half an hour.
Stamford Bridge was already dreaming about a comfortable victory.
But Brighton had other ideas.
Chelsea’s defensive problems quickly returned.
Five minutes after Joao Pedro’s goal, Brighton broke through the three-man defense. Martinez came rushing out to deal with a one-on-one situation, but the loose ball fell to Yalcouye, who smashed a spectacular volley against the inside of the crossbar and into the net.
Martinez’s clean-sheet dream lasted just 35 minutes.
Chelsea still led 3-1 at half-time, but the warning signs were obvious.
After the restart, Brighton continued to dominate possession and eventually found another goal.
In the 63rd minute, a Brighton corner was cleared but the visitors recovered the ball and built another attack. Gross fired from the right side of the box, and Joao Pedro attempted to block the shot.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, his touch sent the ball into his own net.
3-2.
The same player who had scored against his former club was now helping them get back into the game.
Alonso clearly wasn’t impressed.
Alonso responded by making three substitutions in the 67th minute, bringing on Caicedo, Reece James and Acheampong.
Caicedo had only just returned from injury, but his comeback lasted just 14 minutes before he was forced off again. Chelsea’s injury problems clearly aren’t going away.
Then came the moment that finally gave the Blues some breathing room.
In the 74th minute, Joao Pedro found Palmer outside the box. Palmer drove forward, shifted past his marker and curled a beautiful effort into the corner.
4-2.
Alonso celebrated wildly on the touchline.
And understandably so. Without that goal, the final minutes could have been completely different.
Brighton refused to give up, however. Six minutes into stoppage time, Gross rose highest from a corner and headed the ball into the net.
4-3.
Suddenly, Chelsea were hanging on.
But they survived.
The final whistle confirmed another three points for Alonso.
The statistics make this match even more fascinating.
Chelsea had just 26% possession, compared with Brighton’s 74%. Yet Chelsea registered 17 shots to Brighton’s 15, with both teams managing six shots on target.
Chelsea also produced the better expected-goals figure, 2.97 compared with Brighton’s 1.47.
In other words, Brighton had the ball. Chelsea had the efficiency.
That efficiency has become one of the biggest features of Alonso’s Chelsea.
The Blues have now scored seven goals across their opening two Premier League matches. Only three managers in Premier League history had previously managed to reach that total in their first two league games: Bobby Robson, Michael Laudrup and Marcelo Bielsa.
Alonso has now joined them.
But there is another statistic that should worry Chelsea supporters.
The Blues have conceded in 18 consecutive Premier League matches.
Martinez actually had an impressive debut despite conceding three goals. He made four saves, including three inside the penalty area, and earned an excellent 8.4 rating.
When a goalkeeper concedes three goals and still receives that kind of score, it tells you something.
He was probably the reason Chelsea didn’t concede even more.
Palmer will get plenty of attention for his spectacular goal, but Joao Pedro arguably delivered the most complete performance of the night.
He scored once, provided an assist, registered five shots, completed four of five dribbles and won 13 of 20 duels.
And then there was the own goal.
So his evening basically contained everything: scoring against his former club, creating another goal and accidentally scoring for them.
Football doesn’t get much more dramatic than that.
For Chelsea, the victory also ended a run of four consecutive defeats against Brighton in all competitions.
But Alonso will know there is still plenty to work on.
Scoring seven goals in two matches is an excellent start. Defending like this, however, won’t be enough against the Premier League’s strongest sides.
Chelsea can survive a crazy 4-3 win against Brighton.
They may not survive the same defensive mistakes against Manchester City, Arsenal or Liverpool.
The attack looks exciting. The efficiency is impressive. The mentality is improving.
But if Alonso wants Chelsea to become genuine title contenders, the next step is obvious:
Keep scoring four — while finding a way to stop conceding three.
For fans following every twist of the new Premier League season, 12B Sports will certainly have plenty more Chelsea drama to talk about.
