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

[Seagull kimchi]

You have to wonder what Locardia thought of all that. A battling humiliation at home. We really had a go and were worth at least a goal...but...it's not looking good. Low end teams seem to get a bit closer to the top teams at home than us.

 

[hitony]

Scoreline aside I enjoyed that. Was Hughton trying the formation out ahead of the new boy starting?

Same as.....................I hope so as the scoreline does far from represent the game, we fought hard and were bloody unlucky at times, but we fought and fought!! ...well done lads, onwards and upwards to the next game

 

[Mackenzie]

The score was really harsh on us, we didn’t deserve that, but Chelsea did have some very high quality players in their team that can do that to you. The referee with man boobs didn’t help us by missing the two penalties, give one of those at 2-0 and it could have been a better outcome.

I quite liked the formation, Schelotto and Suttner look perfect for that although I’d probably swap Duffy for the more cerebral Hunemeier if we play it again. The new forward will also make a difference when he’s up to speed.

So, disappointed with the result but pleased with some of the aspects of today’s game, we’ll beat a good few of the bottom 14 playing like that.

 

[jimhigham]

Poor old Propper with the header too. If that had gone in we'd have all needed some tissues when watching MOTD.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Same as.....................I hope so as the scoreline does far from represent the game, we fought hard and were bloody unlucky at times, but we fought and fought!! ...well done lads, onwards and upwards to the next game

Blimey you got home early

 

[Bob'n'weave]

*sigh*

That's a shame. 4-0 feels harsh and, to be honest, I've seldom felt as good about such a defeat. We were never expecting points from that but there's definitely an idea going forward about... er... going forward. If we play like that against our coming opponents then the goals should come. However, we played well at Old Trafford and that heralded the beginning of this barren spell. The trick will be learning from this and kicking on. Onwards!

Great post. From 2-0 down we still looked like we had a chance to pull it back with some excellent football. Pushed too hard in the end and let in 2 but all credit to the team for giving it a real go. Onwards.

 

[Motogull]

If the kid was in the away section I agree.
F***ing plastic Dad got him in there!

I was looking at it through Hazard's eyes. He wouldn't care where the fan was. He gave himself another reason to feel good about himself today.

Was cheesy from the dad though. Can't defend that.

 

[Bruntburger]

Little kid with a sign asking for Hazards shirt in the Albion end. Father should do one

That’s the type of fans the board want at the Amex theatre. Passionate fans all getting banned. Better get use to it.

 

[Noah All]

Sooo disappointing. I thought we played well esp 1st half (watched on Sky, sorry), we can't buy a goal at present. It was never a 0-4 match.
Defensive errors again.
Hazard masterclass, but he was given so much room. When he passes the ball he doesn't stand still but moves into space.
So why did our defenders stand still and not track him? Same for Willian for his goal.
That said, impressed with our new formation, so much more positive.
We can take a lot of positives from the match.
Onwards and upwards!!

 

[mikebha1963]

Sooo disappointing. I thought we played well esp 1st half (watched on Sky, sorry), we can't buy a goal at present. It was never a 0-4 match.
Defensive errors again.
Hazard masterclass, but he was given so much room. When he passes the ball he doesn't stand still but moves into space.
So why did our defenders stand still and not track him? Same for Willian for his goal.
That said, impressed with our new formation, so much more positive.
We can take a lot of positives from the match.
Onwards and upwards!!

schlotto exellent. DUFFY bloody worrying. !!

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[OzMike]

Just back from the game, we played well I think and did cause problems.
Can't buy a goal at the moment, shame the new guys didn't play.
I know Chelsea aren't Sunderland but who knows what would have happened.
Aussies in the pub were fairly impressed as well.
Never a 0 - 4 game and at least we turned up.

 

[origigull]

Will the Ref get a kick up the ars* from the Refs association for his awful performance today. Should have had 2 pens and if it had been the other way round he would have given it. It could have changed Chelsea's mindset. Hazard was world class today but we gave him too much space to work his magic. Since the Irish have been knocked out of the WC Duffy has been poor in most games, wayward passing and poor defending. Brighton played well in parts today so there is still a good chance of avoiding the dreaded R word.

 

[OzMike]

Will the Ref get a kick up the ars* from the Refs association for his awful performance today. Should have had 2 pens and if it had been the other way round he would have given it. It could have changed Chelsea's mindset. Hazard was world class today but we gave him too much space to work his magic. Since the Irish have been knocked out of the WC Duffy has been poor in most games, wayward passing and poor defending. Brighton played well in parts today so there is still a good chance of avoiding the dreaded R word.

We should have had one pen and they maybe should have had one as well.
We gave Hazzard far to much respect and didn't close him down so he scored.
Good team effort, went down fighting.

 

[fleet]

Very harsh score line. Solly was outstanding today, I say that as a recent critic. We should have been back level or ahead by half time - harsh but that’s the margins.

 

[djentist]

So deflating. Defending was shocking for several of the goals and Hazard/Willian had a field day but some of our play was very good actually, we reacted well to that disastrous opening period and "had a go" by launching a few good counter attacks, but again we just do not have the quality to capitalise and score goals in key moments. You might point to the penalty (or two) that we should or could have had, but we need to be doing better in open play, we can't rely on decisions and other teams being woeful to just about limp over the line.
The passing was so/so today, at times we couldn't even string a few together but some of the balls from Gross were delicious, Dunk had one or two trademark diagonals.

Think it is clear to see that this squad has punched well above its weight and is now running out of steam in some areas. Duffy has gone off the boil of late and should be looking nervously over his shoulder with Uwe and Connor waiting in the wings, March has his moments here and there but on the whole he has faded badly after some early promise, for every good thing he does his decision making lets him down. The midfield creativity has all but disappeared bar a few bits of quality from Gross on set pieces and crosses. Our CM pivot didn't offer much beyond a satisfactory showing, bar that mental header from Propper that would have been incredible had it gone in.
Schelotto had his best game by far, think he's made a really good case to dislodge Bruno long-term based on that showing. He might not be half the footballer that Bruno is in terms of technical ability but he offers so much more than Bruno, and looked at home in that wing back role.

If we can keep those levels up from parts of the game and get players like March and Knockaert (if he comes back, I really don't know what's going on with him at the moment) supplying again, we will have a fighting chance of getting the points we need in our run in, but quite simply we just need to improve our end product and tighten up at the other end for the type of goals we can help (number 1 and number 3, probably number 4 as well).
We can play as well as we like, but scoring goals (and stopping them) is what get teams points of course and our scoring rate is abysmal in relative terms, probably somewhat okay in context given that we still have a lot of our Championship attackers. Pulling ourselves away from danger will be like swimming the channel with a washing machine tied to our backs if we don't bring in some more quality, we can have all the endeavour in the world but we need at least one if not two more players alongside Locadia to be honest, he'll have the most thankless task ever if he's relying on March for service.

Someone more creative than Stephens as an option to slot alongside Propper in more winnable games, he doesn't do anything particularly wrong and is good at winning the ball back but he just offers nothing to our attacking play in this system. Whether Kayal could come in and provide us with a bit more verve I'm unsure, he didn't have the desired effect when he came on even if we were chasing and the game was done but I like him a lot. Also probably a quicker player for the Gross role that can slot in when he's not having an impact, Izzy Brown was (supposed) to be this but he's gone now.

 

[Dick Head]

Oh well, the Arsenal vs Palace game is taking the edge off it.

 

[GT49er]

Radio 5 commentary had the scoreline flattering Chelsea too. At 2-0 down I was despondent, but for a long time after that I thought we might get back into it. Our first 'penalty' would have definitely been a penalty had VAR been in use, apparently - score that to make it 2-1 and the landscape of the game changes.

But hey, it was not to be. One thing disappointed me with CH's substitution - they weren't too late as they usually are, but I would have replaced Hemed with Baldock, not Murray - it would have presented Chelsea with a different sort of threat, whereas in the end the like-for-like substitution was just, well, a waste of a substitution really; it didn't do anything to change the game.

Onwards and upwards!

 

[djentist]

Results really not going our way

 

[Goberpiles]

Results really not going our way

Very much going against us as is everything, posts, no pens, crossbars and goalkeepers making crazy saves.

 

[Weststander]

Results really not going our way

The price paid when your team's form is a series of LLLLL's.

Need to take care of business at home by winning games of football.