It’s round one for Brighton and Chelsea on Saturday as the two sides face-off in the FA Cup before meeting again in the Premier League for a rematch nearly a week later.
By Alex Roberts
Both sides defeated lower-league opposition in the Third Round before being drawn against each other, with Chelsea’s second team earning a comfortably 5-0 win over Morecambe, while Brighton left Norwich with a 4-0 victory.
Dark horses don’t seem to be much of a thing anymore, but Brighton have it in them to beat the big boys on their day, and a statement win over Enzo Maresca’s side ahead of their second meeting isn’t hard to imagine, despite their stuttering form.
Christopher Nkunku set for a “bigger role.”
Chelsea saw several players leave in the January transfer window, mostly on loan, but Christopher Nkunku wasn’t one of them. The French forward has had to take a backseat under Enzo Maresca and is reportedly unhappy with his situation.
Speaking in his pre-match presser, Maresca confirmed Nkunku is set for a “bigger role” in the second half of the season. With Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu both injury doubt’s, Nkunku will likely get a chance on Saturday.
He hasn’t scored a goal since the 5-0 win over Morecambe, but that’s simply due to a lack of opportunity. With 13 goals from his 30 games, 13 of which have been starts, only Maresca knows why he hasn’t been given more of a shot.
7-0 is pretty rough
Brighton’s 7-0 Premier League defeat to Nottingham Forest in their previous fixture has brought up some uncomfortable questions regarding their young manager Fabian Hürzeler.
The FA Cup tie with Chelsea allows them to step away, reset a little, and take a breath, but should they suffer another heavy defeat, those dissenting voices are going to start getting louder.
Chelsea needed a four-goal Cole Palmer masterclass to get past Brighton the last time these two sides played, the last thing Lewis Dunk and co are going to want to see is that lanky genius running at them right now.
Starting to worry about Roméo Lavia
The young midfielder may be the next star to wander down that ‘wonderkid’ to ‘streets won’t forget’ pipeline after Maresca admitted he “still has a long way to go” in the recovery from his most recent injury setback.
Lavia has made just 13 appearances for Chelsea since joining from Southampton back in the summer of 2023, and while he’s been decent in those games, it’s starting to get pretty hard to justify the price tag.
In a perfect world, and FA Cup game against Brighton would have been the ideal opportunity for Lavia to show what he can do, unfortunately, no one knows when he’ll be back playing consistently.
Chelsea aren’t the only side with a problem between the sticks
Bart Verbruggen struggled big time in the defeat to Forest. Yes, we understand the pros and cons of playing out from the back, but, in fear of sounding too much like Tim Sherwood, sometimes you need to get it out.
Thankfully for the Dutchman, he could put Jota Silva’s goal down to mental and physical fatigue, but four errors leading to goals in the Premier League this season is less than ideal for any party.
Don’t expect it to change, it’s the gameplan now, which is fine, but it can be so frustrating for the fans. If it makes Vergruggen feel any better, only Chelsea’s Robert Sánchez has made more errors in the league this season.
Prediction
Honestly, this one could go either way. Never trust Chelsea to win a game they ‘should’, so we’re going to go with a 2-2 draw after 90 minutes. You can make a judgement on who wins it from there!
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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