Chelsea, the team in an amazing form, managed to get past Brighton 2-1 despite a late red card for Reece James. This took Chelsea to sixth in the Premier League, narrowing the distance to European football next season.
At the Amex, Chelsea looked in control with goals from Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku. However, the game’s final moments were tense for Maurico Pochettino’s side, as captain Reece James saw red after a VAR check for kicking out at Joao Pedro with just two minutes of normal time left.
Brighton could not find a second goal to add to Danny Welbeck’s close-range finish, which came seven minutes into injury time.
If Chelsea finishes in sixth, they will qualify for the Europa League, providing Manchester City wins the FA Cup. Otherwise, they could qualify for the UEFA Conference League if Manchester United beats their rivals at Wembley. They could even steal fifth place from Tottenham if Spurs suffer a surprise slip up against Sheffield United on the last day.
Irrespective of whatever happens next, Chelsea’s fans have much to be joyful about. Their side has won four games in a row, and for the first time in 2024, they have achieved back-to-back away wins.
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There were several talking points from the match, and several involved VAR. Only hours before the match, it had been revealed that Premier League clubs were to vote on whether to scrap the VAR system next season.
Here, VAR Peter Bankes advised referee Michael Salisbury to check the pitchside monitor, which brought James’ sending off. There were several other notable calls from Stockley Park in the first half.
Bankes also rightly intervened to advise the referee to change his mind over Chelsea being awarded a penalty for Facundo Buonanotte’s challenge on Marc Cucurella.
But Tariq Lamptey escaped for taking out Mykhailo Mudryk. Bankes felt there was no clear and obvious signs of violent conduct by Lamptey. Mudryk had to leave the game with concussion caused by the incident.
Brighton poured on late – Simon Adingra hit a post and then Welbeck scored. It was the second time Brighton had hit the woodwork – the first was Joao Pedro’s header against the bar just before half-time. But Brighton lacked precision in the final third. It’s now 15 games since they scored more than once in a match.
Defeat, a third of the season to Chelsea, does put the jeopardy on Brighton’s hopes of a top-half finish on the final day.
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Although the big VAR calls dominated the narrative, both sides played some lovely football from the start. Noni Madueke, Adingra, and Palmer threatened with early efforts before Malo Gusto forced a fine stop from Bart Verbruggen with a deflected effort. Palmer, making it 25 goals for the season, made the breakthrough with a super header from Cucurella’s cross.
The game picked up where it left off immediately after the restart with Adingra seeing a penalty appeal rightly waved away, Nkunku firing wide and Jackson miscuing a cross on a Chelsea counter before another Blues break was halted by half-time sub Valentin Barco.
But Chelsea breathed a little easier when Nkunku converted Gusto’s excellent cutback for his third Chelsea goal of an injury-hit season. A mis-timed sliding tackle from Verbruggen outside his box on Jackson earned the Brighton’s keeper a yellow card but there was really very little for the Chelsea boss to worry about in terms of the result until his captain was sent off.
James had only been on for 17 minutes when he pushed his leg against Joao Pedro after being floored by the Brighton man. A red card for violent conduct was inevitable after VAR advised ref Salisbury to go to the monitor. The Blues’ skipper will miss four games for his second such offence of the season.
That sparked a Brighton barrage but, although Welbeck eventually made their pressure pay from Joao Pedro’s cross after Adingra had hit the woodwork moments earlier, Chelsea repelled the hosts’ search for an equalizer to cling on for a valuable victory.
This game marked the resurrection of Chelsea towards the end of the campaign, which now puts them in a reasonable position to qualify for Europe.
