With Willy Caballero making his Premier League debut and Chelsea struggling for goals, Brighton must have come into this game expecting to turn the Champions over. Chelsea have looked bereft of ideas going forwards in recent games and have drawn all their games in this calendar year.
On a positive note, defensively they have been sound. With both Liverpool and Tottenham showing decent form recently, Chelsea were in danger of dropping out of the Premier League`s top four.
With the game underway any fears Chelsea fans had over their ability to create and score were quickly overcome. In particular Eden Hazard looked like a man ready to impress, and it didn`t take him long to find the back of the net.
Some quick footwork by the Belgian in the penalty area saw him create the space to fire the ball into the back of the net with just three minutes gone. The relief amongst the Chelsea players was clearly visible, as it was for the watching faithful.
That wasn`t the end of the excitement, just five minutes later, Chelsea broke and the interplay between Hazard, Willian and Batshuayi superby allowed Willian to fire the ball past the diving keeper. It was Chelsea at their very best. Once again, the Chelsea team showed, as a group their togetherness, as they celebrated.
Fair play to Brighton though, they didn`t just sit back. They attacked Chelsea and the champions became sloppy in their passing and allowed Brighton to do so too often. Having been on the wrong end of dodgy penalty decision in mid-week, that even the video assistant referee couldn`t see, when Willian was fouled. Willy Caballero got away with catching Schelotto in the penalty area. Referee Jon Moss`s view was impeded and he was not able to call it. It was a let off for the Blues.
Not too long after that, as Brighton continued to press, Schelotto was bundled over in a collision with Tiemoue Bakayoko. The referee had a clear view of this one and didn`t give that one either. I must say I like Jon Moss very much. He`s had good games reffing Chelsea before. Chelsea had had their payback from Wednesday`s VAR shambles.
Brighton continued to play well and had chances to score, but Chelsea, one way or another kept the Seagulls at bay. The game reached half-time with Chelsea still two goals to the good. Antonio Conte would have to try and reinvigorate his Chelsea side ahead of the second period.
It was Brighton who began the half the better of the two sides. They had a chance early on but were denied by the upright. A collision of heads saw Andreas Christensen pole-axed. He was down for a while but was ultimately unable to carry on and he was replaced by David Luiz.
Chelsea were awarded a free kick, centrally, just outside the penalty area, when Hazard was brought down. Willian lined it up, and superbly slotted it between the jumping wall and the keeper did well to just tip it onto the post, for his defender to clear.
Midway through the half and Chelsea were thankful for the advantage those early goals gave them, at 0-0 the game could have gone either way. Chelsea though, still looked better playing in this 3-4-3 formation than Conte`s favoured 3-5-1-1. Willian and Hazard were linking well and Batshuayi was showing strength on the ball that Alvaro Morata so often seems to be missing.
Like most teams Brighton were managing to their raise their game against the current champions and were playing really well, but Chelsea, to their credit, were defending really well. In the Chelsea goal Caballero was also impressing, as he did in the FA cup game at Norwich. Suddenly Chelsea`s hot and cold garden was getting a bit warmer once again, summer was returning.
Conte made his first substitution of the game with just 15 minutes left, Davide Zappacosta replacing Marcos Alonso. Shortly after that, Willian played a through ball that Hazard was able to run onto.He simply ran at the Brighton defence and they just stood off him as he jinked his way around them before sending the keeper the wrong way as he fired home. Hazard was on fire.
On 80 minutes Willian was replaced by Charly Musonda, making a rare Premier League outing. The game then started a slow wind down to the end. Chelsea were looking as comfortable as Brighton were beaten. Three goals to the good and three points in the bag.
The icing on the cake, though, was delivered by a Musonda ball over the top straight into Victor Moses who slotted in his first Premier League goal in 14 months.
Victory sees Chelsea climb back above Liverpool into third place, now with a better goal difference, and level with Manchester United. After a run of poor performances, this game once again showed those watching that Chelsea are not finished as a unit. Changes were made and even David Luiz got a hug from his manager at the end of the game.
Next up for Chelsea a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. After this they can head there full of confidence.
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