[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs Chelsea *** Official Match Thread ***

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I'm disappointed we've lost. I want this club to win a trophy and the league cup is as good as any.

I don't understand 'the league is more important' argument. It's only more important if we're going for the title or trying to avoid relegation. We shouldn't be in any danger of either so why not go for a cup?

Even if we qualify for the champions league, so what? If the league is always more important whats the point? Give me 8th-10th in the league and a trophy over fourth and no trophies. Admittedly, finishing fourth is not a bad second option...

 

[oldboyroy]

I will forget last night if we get 3 points at villa on Saturday.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I will forget last night if we get 3 points at villa on Saturday.

I won't.
Another chance of real progress in a domestic competition chucked away again. A Chelsea side devoid of confidence and we turn in a performance as flat as a witches chest. Guess what....the draw opens up. They get Blackburn at home. Man U draw Newcastle and West Ham get Arsenal and Mansfield, Exeter, Port Vale and Boro all still in and drawn against each other.
We get it all wrong, hyping up last Thursday and faffing about in a competition where we are out of our depth and with absolutely no chance of winning. The players have appeared emotionally drained ever since and have turned in two sub par displays, crashing out of the League Cup, a realistic chance of silverware. With 15 points already on the board, last night should have been the priority. Instead, its treated like a free hit that doesnt matter.
This is our time to try and win something. Right now. Before we know it, RDZ will have moved on, the dynamic will have changed and we will all be looking back thinking that we missed our chance.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I won't.
Another chance of real progress in a domestic competition chucked away again. A Chelsea side devoid of confidence and we turn in a performance as flat as a witches chest. Guess what....the draw opens up. They get Blackburn at home. Man U draw Newcastle and West Ham get Arsenal and Mansfield, Exeter, Port Vale and Boro all still in and drawn against each other.
We get it all wrong, hyping up last Thursday and faffing about in a competition where we are out of our depth and with absolutely no chance of winning. The players have appeared emotionally drained ever since and have turned in two sub par displays, crashing out of the League Cup, a realistic chance of silverware. With 15 points already on the board, last night should have been the priority. Instead, its treated like a free hit that doesnt matter.
This is our time to try and win something. Right now. Before we know it, RDZ will have moved on, the dynamic will have changed and we will all be looking back thinking that we missed our chance.

I know your kinda right, but no one needs to read that first thing in the morning, thanks for that really set the day up.

 

[Justice]

I won't.
Another chance of real progress in a domestic competition chucked away again. A Chelsea side devoid of confidence and we turn in a performance as flat as a witches chest. Guess what....the draw opens up. They get Blackburn at home. Man U draw Newcastle and West Ham get Arsenal and Mansfield, Exeter, Port Vale and Boro all still in and drawn against each other.
We get it all wrong, hyping up last Thursday and faffing about in a competition where we are out of our depth and with absolutely no chance of winning. The players have appeared emotionally drained ever since and have turned in two sub par displays, crashing out of the League Cup, a realistic chance of silverware. With 15 points already on the board, last night should have been the priority. Instead, its treated like a free hit that doesnt matter.
This is our time to try and win something. Right now. Before we know it, RDZ will have moved on, the dynamic will have changed and we will all be looking back thinking that we missed our chance.

We are a good side yet not a top side. We don’t have the luxury of being able to bring on £200m worth of striking options to get the job done like a Liverpool. As for the ridiculous RDZ comments only
a very few would of heard of him before his arrival and how do we know the next manager TB has his eye on won’t do just as well or better? Maybe reign in expectations and enjoy what we do have Europa league football and currently sitting third in the EPL.

 

[stss30]

We'll all have our opinions on this but mine is:- Our squad isn't currently strong enough to be competitive in all of these competitions this year, dropping out at this stage will be a blessing in disguise; as if we'd made it through a few rounds we'd then have to take it more seriously and with that comes a heightened risk of fatigue and injury.

It's just a shame it was against a Chelsea team absolutely gagging to beat us, but given they're not playing in Europe and with the squad they have, I'm not suprised they were taking it seriously.

 

[chickens]

I’m looking at this as minutes on the pitch for some of our younger/newer players, in a competitive match environment against PL opposition.

RDZ gets to see how each player performs, can offer feedback and advice to them and see where the coaching focus needs to be for each to progress.

We had our opportunities and didn’t take them, it’s football, it can happen. I’m certainly not getting on the back of anyone who was out there last night. There was nobody sulking/not trying out there.

 

[trueblue]

I will forget last night if we get 3 points at villa on Saturday.

Me too. Some right drama queens on here. Thought I must have been at a different match reading NSC but the highlights confirmed what I thought at Stamford Bridge. Albion the far superior side in the first half. They got stronger with their subs in the second half as we reshuffled with Saturday in mind. Understandable with Pochettino already under pressure. If we’d been even average with our finishing, we’d have won 2–1 or 3-1. As for the players getting stick, Buonanotte had the toughest job on the pitch first half against their best player Chilwell and stuck at it well. Worked his bollocks off all evening & made some good runs when he finally got his chance to play through the middle. We didn’t improve when Lallana came on (appeared to be injured?) but I don’t see people saying he’s League One at best. Buonanotte maybe could have done with the loan this year that Enciso’s injury scuppered but that doesn’t make him a bad player. He’s just a young player who needs to improve and probably will with - here’s the thing - a bit of support. Baleba looks like he’ll be an excellent signing once he’s up to speed so I’m surprised to read that he’s crap too. Jury’s out on Dahoud - been here 5 minutes in a team that by necessity keeps changing. Ditto Igor. Both have had their good and bad moments.

We’re out of a competition that we could really do without in a fixture list that’s heavily front-loaded already. We look a lot better than Chelsea. Win or draw at Villa and it’s been a good week.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I won't.
Another chance of real progress in a domestic competition chucked away again. A Chelsea side devoid of confidence and we turn in a performance as flat as a witches chest. Guess what....the draw opens up. They get Blackburn at home. Man U draw Newcastle and West Ham get Arsenal and Mansfield, Exeter, Port Vale and Boro all still in and drawn against each other.
We get it all wrong, hyping up last Thursday and faffing about in a competition where we are out of our depth and with absolutely no chance of winning. The players have appeared emotionally drained ever since and have turned in two sub par displays, crashing out of the League Cup, a realistic chance of silverware. With 15 points already on the board, last night should have been the priority. Instead, its treated like a free hit that doesnt matter.
This is our time to try and win something. Right now. Before we know it, RDZ will have moved on, the dynamic will have changed and we will all be looking back thinking that we missed our chance.

We are not so good that we can turn it on whenever we fancy it .
Likewise Chelsea are not so bad that they can be expected to always lose.
It was one of those things.
You are right it was a decent chance
of silverware though

 

[Napper]

Hinsh looked comfortable was a positive

 

[Seasider78]

We were not at our best but some better finishing from Pedro and Fati (who have missed a couple of easier chances in last few games) and a referee who does not bottle a second yellow card and we win that game.

Disappointing but whatever RDZ says we are not a club and squad capable of fighting in 4 competitions (even Man City can’t do that) so was inevitable one took a hit and it was always going to be this one in the priority order of competitions.

 

[El Turi]

I know a lot won’t agree with me but I’ve been saying for years that the league cup should be scrapped. It is a totally pointless competition these days.

 

[dazzer6666]

Me too. Some right drama queens on here. Thought I must have been at a different match reading NSC but the highlights confirmed what I thought at Stamford Bridge. Albion the far superior side in the first half. They got stronger with their subs in the second half as we reshuffled with Saturday in mind. Understandable with Pochettino already under pressure. If we’d been even average with our finishing, we’d have won 2–1 or 3-1. As for the players getting stick, Buonanotte had the toughest job on the pitch first half against their best player Chilwell and stuck at it well. Worked his bollocks off all evening & made some good runs when he finally got his chance to play through the middle. We didn’t improve when Lallana came on (appeared to be injured?) but I don’t see people saying he’s League One at best. Buonanotte maybe could have done with the loan this year that Enciso’s injury scuppered but that doesn’t make him a bad player. He’s just a young player who needs to improve and probably will with - here’s the thing - a bit of support. Baleba looks like he’ll be an excellent signing once he’s up to speed so I’m surprised to read that he’s crap too. Jury’s out on Dahoud - been here 5 minutes in a team that by necessity keeps changing. Ditto Igor. Both have had their good and bad moments.

We’re out of a competition that we could really do without in a fixture list that’s heavily front-loaded already. We look a lot better than Chelsea. Win or draw at Villa and it’s been a good week.

Nailed it.

 

[Comrade Sam]

I thought we were better than them for most of the game and we lost on fine margins - could have had a pen, missed sitters, their goal looked offside, they could have had a red (in fact if it was a league game they'd have picked up several yellows for kicking the ball away). Chelsea also played an expensive array of talent and need to win something.
Strangely I saw RDZ post match on YouTube then read the comments - what a load of negative dicks, almost everyone said they were a Brighton fan and claimed our 2nd team is shite and our performance was awful. Genuinely think they watched a different game.

 

[GT49er]

Opportunity mssed, I'm afraid. Home draw aainst Blackbrn in the next round - win that then we'd be in the quarter finals with City and the dangerous Villa already out, and two more out of United, Bewcastle, Arsenal and West Ham also out of it. Golden chance of European qualification barely half way through the season. What a waste!

 

[C1 BHA]

Opportunity mssed, I'm afraid. Home draw aainst Blackbrn in the next round - win that then we'd be in the quarter finals with City and the dangerous Villa already out, and two more out of United, Bewcastle, Arsenal and West Ham also out of it. Golden chance of European qualification barely half way through the season. What a waste!

Unfortunately, you’re quite right but we can’t win ‘em all…..I’m sure Citeh and Villa fans are thinking the same thing. UTA.

 

[Farehamseagull]

I thought we were better than them for most of the game and we lost on fine margins - could have had a pen, missed sitters, their goal looked offside, they could have had a red (in fact if it was a league game they'd have picked up several yellows for kicking the ball away). Chelsea also played an expensive array of talent and need to win something.
Strangely I saw RDZ post match on YouTube then read the comments - what a load of negative dicks, almost everyone said they were a Brighton fan and claimed our 2nd team is shite and our performance was awful. Genuinely think they watched a different game.

We were ok last night, not great.

To me, the good news is we're currently 3rd in the table having won 5 out of 6 games and to be honest, I don't think we've actually played as good as we can or did last season in any of our games with maybe the exception of the Newcastle game. Away to Wolves we actually weren't great and could have been behind but blew them away in a 10 minute spell. Even away to Man Utd, I don't think we were as good as some of the pundits made out, we didn't have to be to be at our best to beat a poor team. When the new players are fully up to speed and we start clicking, things could get very exciting.

 

[Napper]

Opportunity mssed, I'm afraid. Home draw aainst Blackbrn in the next round - win that then we'd be in the quarter finals with City and the dangerous Villa already out, and two more out of United, Bewcastle, Arsenal and West Ham also out of it. Golden chance of European qualification barely half way through the season. What a waste!

we said similar last week then lost to Charlton

It may of been a chance but long way to go and bound to of collected more injuries.

We never do anything in the league cup - thats the rules

 

[Kosh]

We’re seeing mixed form, (obviously) corresponding to the necessity to alter large numbers of personnel to manage the sheer weight of matches… our play will naturally lose fluency and become more disjointed as a consequence… partnerships take time to forge, especially in a competitive setting.

The fact that we’re already looking fatigued is a concern, so losing this one and avoiding more fixtures is probably the lesser of two evils.

On the game itself, in spite of our stop start bitty play and new players finding their feet etc. arguably we were the better side, and lost to the odd goal… hardly convincing from Chelsea, nor does it represent the end of thier woes… let them have this one, it obviously means WAY more to them than I’d consider normal, you know, for such a HUGE club.

 

[Justice]

Should have been 1-0 Jao Pedro received the ball from a bad pass by Sancho in much the same position that Solanki scored from. But he put a bit too much on it and it cleared the bar

Sancho? Chelsea signing players outside the window now