Brighton and Hove Albion 3 Chelsea 0
Danny Welbeck sealed a triumph over Chelsea as Brighton and Hove Albion beat Liam Rosenior’s side 3-0 at the Amex this evening (Tuesday 21 April).
The Seagulls leapfrog Chelsea to go sixth in the table and edged closer to a place in European competition next season.
Welbeck’s stoppage-time strike followed the opener from Ferdi Kadioglu after just three minutes and a 56th minute goal by Jack Hinshelwood.
Travelling fans made their displeasure known as the visitors’ ended a fifth top-flight match in defeat – and without scoring – as their Champions League hopes were all but extinguished.
The home fans on the other hand sang Rosenior’s praises. He ended his playing days at Brighton and started his coaching career here.
But he fielded a side without top scorer Joao Pedro, another former Seagull, and two other key attacking players – Cole Palmer and Estevao Willian.
For Brighton, Kaoru Mitoma came close to opening the scoring after just two minutes with a header in the box. Ex-Albion goalkeeper Robert Sanchez made an impressive reflex save.
But it gave Brighton a corner and Kadioglu was well placed to pounce on a rebound to make it 1-0 in the third minute.
Sanchez pulled off another cracking save from another header on the quarter hour, this time from Jan Paul van Hecke, winning Albion another corner – but this one came to nought.
Georginio Rutter picked up a pass on the edge of the box in the 17th minute but his shot was just the wrong side of the crossbar.
Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen collected the ball safely a few minutes later as Malo Gusto played a cross into the box.
Pascal Gross tested Sanchez with a cross at the other end in the 21st minute but the former Albion keeper managed to smother the ball.
Then Yankuba Minteh had a stab at the Chelsea goal, winning another corner which Chelsea cleared comfortably, sending Liam Delap on a one-man counter-attack. His effort won a corner which the home defence cleared.
Mats Wieffer and then Minteh sent the ball into the area, with the latter winning another corner.
Trevoh Chalobah was the next player to try a shot, also winning a corner – and another corner followed almost straight away.
Wesley Fofana picked up the first yellow card of the match from referee Craig Pawson for tugging an opponent’s shirt shortly before half time.
He was replaced at the break by Alejandro Garnacho while Albion head coach Fabian Hürzeler sent Joel Veltman on in place of Wieffer.
Chelsea started stronger after the interval but it wasn’t long before the Seagulls were flying, with first Mitoma having a stab but firing wide and then Hinshelwood receiving a cross on the edge of the box and striking it sweetly.
Minteh and Hinshelwood kept up the pressure, with the former picking up a yellow card, and Kadioglu forced Sanchez to make a couple of impressive saves midway through the half.
As the match wore on, the Blues tried to battle their way back but nothing went quite right for them.
With less than 10 minutes on the clock, Yasin Ayari came on for Mitoma and Welbeck for Rutter.
Former Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo had an effort blocked as the clock ticked down but then, as the traffic flowed the other way, Maxim De Cuyper, on as a sub for Minteh, teed up Welbeck whose first-time shot was bang on target.
After a hard winter, Albion have hit their stride in spectacular fashion, losing just once – to Arsenal – in their past eight matches to pick up 19 points out of 24. And some would say they outplayed the Gunners.
Hürzeler praised Albion’s performance, saying: “We played a good game. We defended well. We had a good structure in possession and created a lot of chances.”
