Chelsea travel to Brighton in a vital clash in the race for European football, with the match kicking off at 8pm on Tuesday, 21st April.
Chelsea predicted lineup vs Brighton
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Hato, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Garnacho, Palmer, Neto; Pedro.
The Blues currently sit sixth in the Premier League, which may yet yield Champions League football, depending on how Aston Villa do in the Europa League. If not, though, they now trail Liverpool by seven points after a wretched run.
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Chelsea team news vs Brighton
Liam Rosenior will hope to have Joao Pedro available to face his former club, after Chelsea’s top scorer missed the defeat to Manchester United with a thigh problem.
Enzo Fernandez was brought off late in that match but should be fit to start again here, while Levi Colwill logged minutes for the U21s last week — though it’s very hard to see him being in contention at Brighton after his long ACL layoff.
Estevao has a hamstring problem and will join Reece James, Jamie Gittens and Filip Jorgensen on the treatment table.
Liam Rosenior rues defensive lapses amid goalscoring troubles
It’s going wrong for Chelsea at both ends of the pitch right now. The Blues have lost each of their last four Premier League matches without scoring a single goal, while they’ve conceded eight during that run.
Saturday’s loss against Man Utd was a classic case of a team dominating the match but lacking the bite to take advantage, while switching off at the other end for a soft Matheus Cunha goal, which was the Red Devils’ only shot on target throughout the entire evening.
That theme has dominated Chelsea’s slump, and it’s one Rosenior knows he needs to end immediately if the Blues are to stand any chance of Champions League qualification — even if sixth is enough, no fewer than eight teams are within six points or less of them.
“Very frustrating,” Rosenior responded when asked in his post-match press conference about Chelsea conceding ‘basic goals’.
He continued: “The goal today, they’ve had one shot on target in the game. I can’t remember another chance they’ve had. I could say that about Newcastle three weeks ago. I know we know what needs to improve at this club because you cannot work that hard to score a goal, and the other team have one shot and score. We need to improve in that aspect if we’re going to give ourselves any chance to win a game.”