Overview
Liam Rosenior's player career ended at Brighton in 2018, and now, the 41-year-old strategist's hope of bringing Chelsea back to the Champions League is also facing the risk of collapse.
After the initial effect under Rosenior, Chelsea fell into crisis again when losing all 4 recent matches in the Premier League. The latest defeat came after Matheus Cunha's goal, continuing to deepen The Blues' disappointing performance streak.
The absence of Joao Pedro cannot be an excuse, especially when rival Manchester United also has a crisis in defense with a series of names such as Harry Maguire, Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martinez or Matthijs de Ligt absent.
More worryingly, Chelsea have lost 5/6 recent matches in all competitions and have not scored any goals in all 5 defeats. The rare bright spot is only the 7-0 victory over Port Vale in the FA Cup, but it is not enough to cover up the big problems in the operating system.
Currently, The Blues can hardly reach higher than 6th place, while opponents such as Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham, Brighton or Everton are all closely following, making the top 7 race extremely fierce.
In the opposite direction, Brighton is nurturing hopes of returning to the European arena. Fabian Hurzeler's team just drew Tottenham 2-2, in a match where Kaoru Mitoma and Georginio Rutter took turns shining to keep 1 valuable point.
Although this draw ended a 3-game winning streak, Brighton is still one of the teams with the most stable form recently. The gap between them and Chelsea is only 1 point, and they are also directly competing with Brentford and Bournemouth.
Brighton's home form is not too impressive (only won 3/10 recent matches), but they once caused a big surprise when they defeated Liverpool 2-1 in March.
Notably, Brighton also has a psychological advantage when they beat Chelsea 3-1 right at Stamford Bridge in September, thereby extending their 3-game winning streak against The Blues in all competitions.
Personnel situation
Chelsea suffered a big loss when losing Joao Pedro, but difficulties did not stop there. Rosenior continued to witness two new injuries that forced Estevao Willian and Enzo Fernandez to leave the field.
Estevao is very disappointed and is likely to be out of action for a while due to a hamstring injury, which could even affect long-term goals like the World Cup. Meanwhile, Fernandez only suffered cramps and has recovered, while Pedro has also returned to training after a thigh problem.
Chelsea's list of absences is still very long. Reece James, Levi Colwill, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Mykhaylo Mudryk definitely cannot play, while Benoit Badiashile and Filip Jorgensen are still uncertain about their ability to participate.
On the other side, Brighton also suffered losses when Diego Gomez suffered a knee injury after a wrong landing in the match against Tottenham.
His replacement Kaoru Mitoma also had to leave the field at the end of the match, but according to Fabian Hurzeler, the Japanese player only suffered from cramps and is capable of playing in the next match.
In addition, Brighton is still missing James Milner, Adam Webster and Stefanos Tzimas due to injury. The positive point is that captain Lewis Dunk has returned after suspension, helping to strengthen the defense.
With the weak force situation on both sides, the upcoming confrontation is likely to be decided by the depth of the squad and tactical adaptability rather than pure form.
Expected lineup:
Brighton: Verbruggen, Wieffer, Dunk, Van Hecke, Kadioglu, Gross, Ayari, Minteh, Rutter, Mitoma, Welbeck.
Chelsea: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella, Caicedo, Fernandez, Palmer, Pedro, Neto, Delap.
The match between Brighton and Chelsea takes place at 2:00 a.m. on April 22 (Vietnam time).
