Brighton (A): Match Review

My thoughts on todays match....

Good Evening Ladies and Gents,

Well my heart has finally restored to a normal pulse after that nervy last 10 minutes or so…….

I don’t really know where to start with that game, it was an end to end game which realistically could have easily finished 4-4, it was largely overshadowed by VAR though, unfortunately and quite ironically given the news on VAR earlier this evening.

Lets start with VAR, there was multiple interventions by it this evening and they got the decision wrong on pretty much every occasion.

Firstly, The Cucurella penalty incident, which wasn’t a penalty for me, just. My issue with the VAR intervention is the cliche ‘clear and obvious’ stigma of VAR, if it wasn’t given initially I wouldn’t have expected VAR to get involved, but as the ref gave the penalty there wasn’t enough to overturn, Buonanotte won the ball but he went through Cucurella to do so, making contact with the player jsut before making contact with the ball……Jury’s out but given the supposed usage of VAR, the intervention was slightly unfair.

Next and 10000000% the worst decision of the night, the Lamptey barge into Mudryk, how on earth VAR can possibly say the evidence was inconclusive is beyond me, anyone could see how aggressive it was. We had to use a concussion substitution for F**cks sake!!! Absolutely pathetic officiating.

Incident; Lamptey shoulder charge

The Jackson goal that got ruled out was probably the right decision just, as he put 2 hands on his back, probably the right decision from VAR, did it need to get involved??

Now on to the Reece Red card, it’s a red card unfortunately. The issues I have with it are as follows 1) Joao Pedro stamps on Reece’s foot (slightly) first and therefore provokes a retaliation. 2) Joao Pedro’s reaction was absolutely pathetic the way he rolled around. 3) I do believe it was of an aggressive push than a “kick out”. Unfortunately it was petulant from Reece, if anyone even dares to question his captaincy read the below from our friend The Score.

Overall Summary:

A good performance from us overall, as mentioned in my match preview we would need to weather storms and soak up pressure from Brighton and we did that throughout the match whilst being incredibly dangerous on the counter attack, it was a bit of a typical Chelsea story after that with countless chances on the break being wasted by poor passing, indecision or poor finishing.

I was really impressed with how we controlled the game and my thoughts couldn’t be summarised much better than this, with the second tweet a good point;

Si has been very vocal about patterns of play and I couldn’t agree more with him than that and over the last few games we have started to see the odd pattern, far from enough in my eyes but there are slow moving signs of progress.

If anyone would have said to me a month ago we would win against West Ham and Spurs (H) & Forest and Brighton (A) I wouldn’t have believed them, 4 very good results and I always believe that you end the season where you deserve to be and that over a 38 game season it does average out.

That is now 4 on the bounce for the blues and could/should have been 5 if the Disasi goal (A) v Villa, that win leaves us 6th in the league with one game to play, we can finish as high as 5th or as low as 7th now. If Spurs lose to Sheffield United and we beat Bournemouth we finish 5th. If Spurs win we finish below them. If we get 1 point we guarantee 6th place.

Ratings:

Mauricio Pochettino - 7.5

Proactive substitutions again, set us up really well and team selection was spot on.

Djordje Petrovic - 7

A couple of really good saves, comfortable on the ball and continues his run of good form. Unlucky to lose his clean sheet, not much he could do with the goal.

Malo Gusto - 7

Always dangerous and slick on the ball, forced a good save from Verbruggen, did however look slightly uncomfortable against Adingra at times but as usual fairly solid defensively.

Trevoh Chalobah - 8

Trev was brilliant in this game, we cannot sell him. Brilliant 1v1, dominant in the air and solid on the ball.

Benoit Badiashille - 7

Didn’t put to much of a foot wrong, him and Trev looked good together a couple of nice bits of defending in there as well.

Marc Cucurella - 7.5

The resurgence continued, excellent assist for Cole, aggressive in the tackle and on the ball, solid!

Moises Caicedo - 9 MOTM

Absolutely brilliant, so good in everything he done, he is class and has been so good over the last few months.

Conor Gallagher - 6.5

His usual pressing/energetic self but a slightly quieter version tonight.

Noni Madueke - 6.5

Some really lively moments but they were so few and far between, similar to the Forest game, rightfully subbed and may be restored to the bench on Sunday.

Cole Palmer - 8

Do I need to say anything about this man? What a header, who knew he could header????

Mykahilo Mudryk - 6.5

Was looking relatively comfortable, some good runs with the ball and some decent decisions made before he was assaulted.

Nicolas Jackson - 7.5

As always he was a handful, a willing runner and slightly unlucky his goal was ruled out, he improves by the game at the minute.

SUBS;

Christopher Nkunku - 7.5

I love watching this man play and I just wonder where we would be if he was fit this season and excellent finish and great to see THAT celebration.

Reece James - 5

Was looking comfortable with less bombing runs forward than Sunday, a silly decision with red mist fogging his vision, petulant reaction but I do understand slightly given he has just returned from a 5 month injury lay off and quite easily could have got injured in that challenge.

Raheem Sterling - 6

Wasn’t involved too much really, lots of defending, free kick straight at the GK.

Others - N/A

Thiago Silva

Lesley Ugochukwu

Cesare Casadei

Thank you all for reading, please fell free to comment your opinions

Luke Rushbrook