Chelsea secured an important 2-0 victory over Graham Potter’s Brighton and Hove Albion to maintain their promising start to the 2019/20 Premier League season.
We discuss the main Fantasy talking points in our Scout Notes article below.
Chelsea 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion
- Goals: Jorginho (£5.0m), Willian (£7.0m)
- Assists: Mason Mount (£6.6m), Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.9m)
- Bonus Points: Jorginho x3, Willian x2, Cesar Azpilicueta (£5.9m), Fikayo Tomori (£4.6m), Mat Ryan (£4.5m) x1
After a disappointing defeat to Liverpool last weekend, Frank Lampard’s side responded in excellent fashion with goals from Jorginho (£5.0m) and Willian (£7.0m) proving to be enough to ensure the Blues collected all three points in front of the Stamford Bridge faithful.
A home fixture against a side who had not won since the opening day was understandably an appealing fixture for those managers in ownership of Tammy Abraham (£7.5m) and Mason Mount (£6.6m), but Chelsea’s attacking assets were unable to fully capitalise, despite an assist for Mount after he was fouled by Adam Webster (£4.4m) in the Brighton penalty area.
Mount continues to impress as a value-for-money option in Chelsea’s midfield, having recorded attacking returns in four of the seven league games he has started this season. His performance in the victory over Brighton rewarded those managers who had brought in the 20-year-old as well as those who had owned the midfielder from the early stages of the season.
Yet whilst Mount has had his share of the headlines so far in 2019/20, it has been Abraham who had been dominating Chelsea’s opponents with his goalscoring prowess. Saturday’s victory saw the former Aston Villa loanee fail to get on the scoresheet for the second successive game, despite having scored seven goals in three appearances in Gamweek’s 3 to 5.
There can be no doubting of the fact that Abraham’s performances against Norwich, Sheffield United and Wolves were exceptional.
But the 21-year-old was arguably over-performing relative to his expected attacking returns, and blanks against Liverpool and now Brighton are a timely reminder to managers in ownership of the striker that whilst he is an extremely promising asset, he does not offer the same level of goalscoring consistency as premium striking options such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) or Sergio Aguero (£12.2m)
An interesting narrative that emerged from the victory over Brighton was with regards to Chelsea’s penalty-taking duties. Despite Lampard’s comments after the Valencia game a fortnight ago, it was Jorginho (£5.0m) who took the penalty after Mount was fouled.
When asked in his post-match press conference, Lampard responded in blunt fashion to whether Jorginho was now Chelsea’s first-choice penalty taker:
Yes he is, end of story.
Lampard further praised Jorginho’s performance and his credentials as a leader on the pitch:
He’s a leader on the pitch, I’m pleased with him. Young players can look up to him.
This was a first clean sheet of the season for Chelsea, which will be extremely pleasing to managers in ownership of their defensive assets and particularly for those who had moved for Fikayo Tomori (£4.6m), who put in another assured performance at the heart of the Blues’ defence.
Tomori has now emerged as one of Chelsea’s first-choice options at the back, with Lampard admitting in midweek that the 21-year-old is now first or second choice in central defence.
With fixtures against Southampton, Newcastle and Burnley to come in their next three, investment in Tomori as a budget defender with attacking potential – as shown against Wolves – could be a shrewd acquisition for managers looking to acquire defensive coverage from Chelsea.
This was also an impressive team performance from a defensive perspective given the absence of N’Golo Kante (£5.0m) from the starting XI, yet Lampard allayed any concern that the Frenchman could be out for an extended spell.
I didn’t want to take the risk. It’s been difficult for him.
Though for all of Chelsea’s promising attacking play, this was yet another disappointing result for Potter and Brighton despite starting the season with an emphatic performance against Watford. Given the Hornets’ demise since the opening day, it would appear that the job Potter has on his hands is significantly larger than first thought and perhaps the merits of that victory have been marred by the extremely poor form of Watford.
The Seagulls did show attacking promise at Stamford Bridge, namely through Neal Maupay (£6.0m) who had a number of mazy runs into the Chelsea defence, yet they simply lacked any substantial final product and are now winless since that opening day victory at Vicarage Road.
Brighton were dominated by Chelsea from the outset, and whilst defensive assets such as Lewis Dunk (£4.6m) have attracted investment from some managers in the opening stages of the 2019/20 campaign, their current form and upcoming fixtures (Spurs, Villa, Everton) suggest that the Seagulls are not a side who managers will be flocking to in searching for budget defensive coverage in their backlines.
But for all of Brighton’s inconsistencies, this was a game that yet again highlighted the growing viability of Mount and Tomori as attacking and defensive assets respectively, and despite not getting on the scoresheet, Abraham’s performance points to a player who is bound to back in the goals for Lampard’s side in the coming weeks.
Members Analysis
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Alonso, Tomori, Christensen, Azpilicueta; Mount, Barkley (Kovacic 68’) Jorginho; Pedro (Hudson-Odoi 63’) Abraham (Batshuayi 84’) Willian.
Brighton XI (3-4-3): Ryan; Burn, Webster, Dunk, Montoya; D Stephens, Bissouma (Bong 45’) Mooy (Connolly 65’) Alzate, Maupay (Murray 79’) Groß.
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