By Darlington Mutsvairi
Chelsea collected maximum points away to Brighton and Hove in their opening match of the 2020/21 English Premier League season in a four goal thriller beating the hosts 3-1 last night.
The match seemed to be a balanced affair in the first 20 minutes as both sides struggled to have a shot on target.
All hell broke loose when Chelsea won a penalty which was confirmed through a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) after Timo Werner was fouled in the penalty area by Brighton’s shot stopper, Mat Ryan.
Chelsea captain Jorginho converted the penalty with a right footed shot placing it in the bottom left corner sending Ryan the opposite direction. They went to the break Lampard’s troops leading by a goal to nil.
A few minutes after the break Brighton and Hove cancelled the Chelsea lead through Leandro Trossard’s effort at the 53rd minute who struck the back of the net with his left foot drive from outside the box.
This was to be their only goal on the night.
The parity lasted only two minutes as Reece James responded with a wonder strike placing the ball out of reach of Ryan at the top right corner after receiving a through pass from Jorginho in the 57th minute.
Kurt Zouma sealed the Blues’ victory with a first time shot connecting from Reece James’ well taken corner kick in the 65th minute.
Warner was pivotal to the Chelsea victory as he was pressing much upfront and causing a lot of problems for Brighton’s rear guard.
“I was really pleased with Timo Werner’s performance, his speed and quality was key to tonight’s victory”, said Lampard in a post-match interview.
Despite the limited time of training and fatigue, Chelsea managed to clinch a victory away from home but the coach said they still have a lot of work to do to improve their standard.
“There is plenty of improvements to come from this team, particularly with fatigue and lack of training an issue in recent days”, he noted.
Elsewhere, Sheffield United lost 0-2 at home to Wolverhamptom conceding two goals in the first five minutes courtesy of Raul Jimenez and Romain Saiss in the 2nd and 5th minute respectively.
