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

[Rookie]

In the stadium their first (I think) felt very close to offside. I’ve not seen it back but did they do the whole lines thingy or was it just given?

 

[A1X]

I’m delighted everyone has had the opportunity to focus on the ref and VAR rather than talk about our shite defending and utter failure to make a man advantage count even when bring on our first teamers in the second half.

Certainly going by social media tragic and the number of threads on here.

 

[Swegulls]

A one man advantage against a team with quick players like Jackson, Mudruk and Sterling will always be tricky. Think we didn't find the right balance there. If I were CFC I would sit back more often, even at 11/11.

 

[Seagull58]

Appreciate Chelsean down to 10 but great credit going to Chelsea and dominating game. Lost because of crap defending.

We had 78% possession in the second-half with 14 shots, 8 on target. They defended reasonably well but we really should have got at least a point. Need to be better in the final third.

 

[Seagull58]

There’s the clue. Down to 9. I reckon Caicedo would have been sent off if Chelsea had 11 on the pitch.

It’s garbage, of course, as the rules aren’t supposed to be flexed depending on previous offences.

Refs are probably guilty of a form of unconscious bias towards teams who have already had a player sent off, as they’re probably loath to be seen to be “picking” on them.

I agree there's little doubt Pawson would have given Caicedo a second yellow if he hadn't already sent Gallagher off and been loudly abused by the Chelsea coaches for doing so. He bottled the decision and then VAR compounded it by giving the Chelsea penalty.

 

[Seagull58]

There’s nothing ‘going on’ that ‘Tony will be looking into’ - We had a pretty high ratio of set pieces to open goals under Hughton, (they probably counted for around a third of our goal tally and why we managed to stay up after being promoted) but Hughton built the strength of the team on defensive strategies and an ability to absorb pressure rather than upon an attacking goal-scoring system. Post-Hughton our football changed. It wasn’t RDZ that bought Stanley into the role btw, he was already on staff as a performance analyst both with the first team and academy and was promoted to the coaching team. (I remembered we’d brought someone in to coach set pieces but couldn’t remember who until checking the staff list on the Albion page, then recalled Stanley already being with us prior to this role)

Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton & Hove Albion

www.brightonandhovealbion.com

We are no worse at scoring goals from set pieces now imo than we were under Hughton or Potter (in fact we may be marginally better) but our goal-scoring system is much more expansive than either Hughton or Potter styled so the ratio of set piece goals to goals from open play has changed - any gains from set piece training is always going to be very marginal in the overall context of our goal scoring abilities under RDZ (as it was under Potter) so it is not going to be a massive priority in training. As long as we continue to score as many goals in open play and with a wide distribution of goal scorers, I’m happy with that and think the club would be.

It's critical that we improve our defensive set pieces. That will make a real difference to our results.

 

[American Seagle]

I agree there's little doubt Pawson would have given Caicedo a second yellow if he hadn't already sent Gallagher off and been loudly abused by the Chelsea coaches for doing so. He bottled the decision and then VAR compounded it by giving the Chelsea penalty.

He would have sent him off if he was playing for Brighton still. That is the sad fact. Not only do we have to compete against the opposite we have to compete against bias as well. It makes last seasons finish even more impressive.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Assuming they were on the level, which I think they were, we had a good chat on the concourse with a bunch of Dutch chaps.
In good spirits, apparently two of them were brothers of van Hecke. Were delighted when I said how impressed we've been with him.
A propos sod all, I've just remembered, that's all.

 

[rebel51]

Yes part of the issue is players out but also think it is down to who we start with and that was down to the manager.

Lallana is a clever player but has no legs , can't run and so no drive forward or cover.

Not sure why we didn't start with Mitoma though I can understand giving Jao Pedro a rest.

Personally prefer to see Bart in goal as IMO he's a better shot stopper.

Overall though we are not shooting with conviction and too many passes rather than balls driven across the goal.

Probably wanted mitoma raring to go for these next 3 games coming up, rather than risk him v chelsea as he's had an issue recently

 

[Triggaaar]

Definitely a pen, you guys are blinded by bias.

I guess Ally McCoist is a Brighton fan then