Brighton & Hove Albion’s unbeaten start to the season fell apart in 20 minutes of madness at Chelsea.
Fabian Hurzeler’s side succumbed to a 4-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge largely of their own making, as England winger Cole Palmer became the first player in Premier League history to score four goals before half-time in a match.
They conceded as many goals on Saturday in the 20-minute flood from Palmer as they had in the previous 470 minutes of league action this season. Hurzeler cannot remember that happening to one of his teams before. “So, it’s a new experience and I knew there will be not only positive experiences,” the former St Pauli head coach told The Athletic.
“It’s a bad experience. Of course, it was not clear for me that we would concede four goals in 20 minutes. But it happened and now it is about taking responsibility, trying to analyse it, being honest also to myself if you have to adapt something or not, and then we should learn out of it.”
How did it all go so badly wrong and where does this leave Brighton after a damaging launch to a difficult run of fixtures?
Defensive disruption
There was an element of mitigation. Dutch duo Joel Veltman and Jan Paul van Hecke had been the right-sided pair in the back four for the first five league games, in which four goals were conceded. That changed as Hurzeler was forced into amendments to a settled back line. Right-back Veltman was ruled out by sickness, central defender Van Hecke by injury.
Georgi’s first Albion goal! ⚽️ Highlights in partnership with @MPBcom. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/uCHnSyACfT
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) September 29, 2024
Hurzeler said after the match he knew “quite early” that one of them would be missing, but the other was “quite late”, so there was an unexpected adjustment. Turkey international and summer signing Ferdi Kadioglu made his full league debut in place of Veltman, while Adam Webster deputised for Van Hecke.
Kadioglu and Webster were involved in the passage of play that led to Palmer’s gift-wrapped 21st-minute equaliser after record signing Georginio Rutter had headed his first Premier League goal in the seventh minute.
Individual errors
It was criminal to present Chelsea with parity from an attacking throw inside the opponent’s half, cushioned back to Kadioglu on the volley by Mats Wieffer. Kadiolgu played a short pass back to Webster — not the wisest choice as he was closed down by Nicolas Jackson — but Webster still had time to deal comfortably with the situation.
He controlled the ball with his left foot, but an attempted pass back to goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was woefully short, allowing Jackson to race clear and square for Palmer to slot into a gaping goal. Webster’s blunder was indicative of rustiness, having started only 14 of the last 44 league games.
Seven minutes later, a combination of Carlos Baleba and Rutter bundled over Jadon Sancho inside the box for Palmer to put Chelsea 2-1 up from the spot. It was a soft decision by referee Peter Bankes, but not soft enough to be overturned by VAR Michael Oliver. Baleba also conceded a penalty in the previous 2-2 draw at home to Nottingham Forest for a challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi. That was soft as well, but Baleba is mixing naivety with rich promise.
The 20-year-old midfielder also scored his second goal in three games to reduce the arrears to 3-2 in the 34th minute after Palmer had completed a hat-trick in 10 minutes with a free kick from 25 yards. Baleba capitalised on two of Chelsea’s former Brighton players making a mess of playing out from the back by intercepting a pass from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to Moises Caicedo.
The boy is a genius. 💫#CFC | #CHEBHA pic.twitter.com/pIuZIiKKll
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 28, 2024
Having got themselves back in contention, Hurzeler’s side shot themselves in the foot in similar vein. Verbruggen’s pass went straight to Enzo Fernandez, which led to Palmer restoring Chelsea’s two-goal cushion from Sancho’s pass after 41 minutes. Hurzeler said: “We gave the game away with easy little mistakes.”
High defensive line
Hurzeler’s tactic of the defence squeezing up to the halfway line has developed into a theme in the way his team are conceding goals. Although he correctly pointed out that none of Palmer’s goals came via this route, there were numerous occasions when Chelsea’s pacey front line came close to punishing the space behind the defence from through balls.
Some narrow offside calls in the first half and blocks by Webster and Lewis Dunk in the second rescued them from a more embarrassing scoreline. Hurzeler felt the changes were partly to blame. He said: “You always need a connection on the pitch. We made a lot of changes and there was not the connection we needed to to play like this.
“The second thing is it’s not about the high line, it’s about getting pressure on the ball. In some situations we didn’t manage to get pressure on the ball and that’s why they could play easily behind our back four. After the game it’s easy to say, ‘Why don’t you defend in a low block?’ But also in a low block we could lose this game.”
Hurzeler believes the benefit of the high line, if implemented properly, is that it makes the team compact. Whether the policy changes will be impacted by how the players feel about it. Asked if a high line is non-negotiable, Hurzeler said: “Before I say something in public about our style of play, I should discuss it with the players. How they feel, if they feel confident or not.”
What now?
The squad is being stretched. Losing Van Hecke, Veltman and Simon Adingra added to the absences through injury of Joao Pedro (ankle), James Milner (hamstring), Matt O’Riley (ankle) and Solly March (knee). Summer signing Brajan Gruda is close to making his debut after calf trouble, but the former Mainz attacker was not in the squad at Chelsea that began a tough sequence of fixtures.
Tottenham are in town on Saturday. That is followed by a long journey to Newcastle after the October international break, a visit from Wolves, Liverpool home and away in back-to-back games in the Carabao Cup and the league, then Manchester City at home. Brighton had gone seven games unbeaten in all competitions before the setback at Chelsea, but have not won in the league for over a month. The resilience of Hurzeler’s squad faces a severe test.
(Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
