View from the Pressbox: Chelsea 4-2 Brighton

Sam Morton and Henry Bryant spoke about Brighton's defeat to the Blues at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, September 28.

Transcript

00:00So it's Sam Lawton and Henry Bryant outside Stamford Bridge where we've just seen

00:03Brighton lose 4-2 in what was a surreal match really. That first half was a

00:08match that we've not seen before, 45 minutes that we've not

00:12experienced. It really was six goals and it could have been ten in that first

00:16half. Brighton were obviously a bit naive playing that high line, were made to pay

00:20ruthlessly by Chelsea who really could have had more goals. Cole Palmer with

00:25four first-half goals which just shows how much of a quality player he is.

00:30So Henry, how do you even start to start that one up? Well I think that the

00:35way Brighton came into the game, as Maresca said in the post-match press

00:39conference, surprised Chelsea and the way that they came into it and changed

00:43things around early on really made them suffer and that's when we got that first

00:48goal. The first goal on the score sheet for Ritter who's been doing some quite

00:53good things for Brighton, we just haven't been able to see the end product and he

00:57got that today which was one positive for Brighton fans but Cole Palmer,

01:02I should say, he was absolutely quality. Four goals passed us and I think in

01:09terms of the way Brighton were able to defend things, they just weren't.

01:14They just weren't and it wasn't a good one at the end of the day for Brighton.

01:18A real lesson to be learned there and I think that that high line was a struggle

01:23at the time. Merseville likes to play that high line but it was difficult to do against

01:26Chelsea, they've got so much in package for it. Yeah well exactly that and

01:29obviously the second half obviously was very quiet in comparison. I think the

01:33players obviously were probably exhausted after the energy they burned

01:35in that first half. Were there signs for encouragement there that Brighton

01:40were able to maybe steady the ship a little bit and stop that that tide of pressure

01:44that they were facing from Chelsea? Because as I mentioned obviously they

01:47could have conceded so many goals in that first half. I think that as we sort of

01:52spoke about at half-time, I think they were just exhausted. It was a really

01:56topsy-turvy first half and in my opinion the most dramatic first half that I've

02:02ever experienced as a fan of football and as a journalist. So it was

02:06crazy, absolutely mental and I think that Brighton did well to thwart that attack.

02:11It could have been worse. There were opportunities for Cole Palmer in that

02:15second half where he could have got that 5-2. There was a miss where you did

02:20think Halsey missed that but he was perfecting that game all thereabouts.

02:26I think that Brighton did have a little chance to get back into the game

02:29really, make it 4-3 at times. I think that we did put a little bit of pace back

02:33on there with Jakub Minta which was a really positive sign. We also got

02:39Evan Ferguson back for a little bit as well. So there were signs that

02:42Harazela was looking to attack and maybe see if we can nick a goal and make

02:47it an awkward one and push for that draw but it just wasn't meant to be.

02:51As Harazela said, there were too many individual mistakes on the day and

02:57it's things we have to learn from.

02:59Thank you for that Henry and see our play ratings and all the match reaction at

03:03sussexworld.co.uk