Brighton stun Chelsea with Minteh double and Mitoma stunner
Brighton and Hove Albion's Yankuba Minteh (second left) scores his side's second goal. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.
After rousing the ire of Chelsea fans by saying that his team’s defeat at the hands of Brighton in the FA Cup here last weekend would allow them to concentrate on the Premier League, head coach Enzo Maresca really needed to win this one. But instead, a Brighton team that has struggled for victories at home beat the Blues for the second time in seven days with a stunner from Kaoru Mitoma and two more by Yankuba Minteh.
Maresca had also annoyed Brighton a little when the Chelsea coach, who is a close friend of their head coach Fabian Hurzeler’s predecessor, Roberto de Zerbi, would not talk about the present Brighton boss at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, preferring to extol the qualities of de Zerbi.
His thoughts this morning might be unprintable. But Seagulls fans will not care after their team ended a run of three successive Premier League defeats against Chelsea and secured a first home victory in the Premier League in six attempts, their previous Amex success a 2-1 win against Manchester City in November.
While Brighton overcame their problems at home, Chelsea continue to find life difficult on their travels. They have not won a league game on the road since beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 on December 8. They missed the chance to close to within a point of third-placed Nottingham Forest ahead of the East Midlands club's trip to Fulham today and have taken only nine points from their past nine league matches.
As expected, Maresca made four changes to the eleven that had started the cup tie. Filip Jorgensen took over from Robert Sanchez in goal, while Levi Colwill, Enzo Fernandez and Noni Madueke all returned.
However, he was still without Nicolas Jackson, who will be sidelined until the international break with the hamstring injury that forced him off in the 2-1 victory over West Ham United. And Madueke lasted only 20 minutes before departing with what looked like a similar problem.
This was a somewhat perverse choice of televised fixture for Valentine’s Day, with no love lost between the two clubs - certainly on the part of Brighton, whose fans jeered their former players Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo from the kick-off, as they had done in last Saturday’s FA Cup tie between the teams. Add in the coaches and backroom staff tempted away from the Amex since Todd Boehly took over from Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge and there were the makings of a grudge match, if a one-sided one.
Cole Palmer, who had scored all four Chelsea goals in their 4-2 victory at Stamford Bridge in September, sent an early range-finder over the crossbar, while at the other end Caicedo blocked an agreed effort from Danny Welbeck at the expense of a corner kick. But otherwise the opening stages were predictably cagey as two sides who had played each other so recently looked for marginal changes to exploit. When Madueke seemed to have found one, his sprint into the Brighton penalty area ended with him on the ground holding the back of his thigh - not what watching England head coach Thomas Tuchel wanted to see.
It got worse for Chelsea after 27 minutes as Brighton took the lead with a goal of stunning individual quality. Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was offered a short pass but looked up and hit the ball upfield, where Mitoma, running centrally instead of in his usual slot on the left, took the ball down with his right foot as it dropped over his shoulder, sidestepped Trevor Chalobah and guided the ball past Jorgensen’s left hand from 15 yards.
Chelsea pressed for a quick reply, and Pedro Neto saw a close-range shot blocked by Adam Webster before Fernandez had a headed goal disallowed by referee Chris Kavanagh for a push on Joel Veltman.
But Brighton extended their lead after 37 minutes with a goal as random as the first had been remarkable. Georginio Rutter’s strong run and low cross from the left almost led to an own goal by former Brighton loanee Colwill. Jorgensen blocked his unintentional effort but the ball ran to Welbeck, who set up Minteh to cut back past a knot of defenders before beating Jorgensen with a left-foot finish.
63 minutes gone, and it was 3-0. Minteh exchanged passes with Welbeck, cut inside Cucurella and blasted the ball past Jorgensen with the help of a deflection off Chalobah.
In the final minutes Verbruggen blocked a near own goal from Adam Webster to deny Chelsea even the emptiest of consolations.
Verbruggen 6; Veltman 7, van Hecke 6, Webster 7, Lamptey 6; Baleba 8 (Ayari 84), Hinshelwood 6 (Gomez 73); Minteh 8 (Adingra 89), Rutter 8 (Pedro 73), Mitoma 8; Welbeck 7 (O’Riley 84).
Rushworth, Gruda, Adingra, Cashin, Wieffer.
Jorgensen 6; Gusto 6 (James 65), Chalobah 5, Colwill 6, Cucurella 5; Enzo 6, Caicedo 6 (Dewsbury-Hall 66); Madueke 6 (Sancho 21, 5), Palmer 6, Neto 5 (George 65); Nkunku 4.
Sanchez, Adarabioyo, Anselmino, Acheampong, Amougou.
Caicedo, Fernandez.
Chris Kavanagh
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