Chelsea race 3-0 clear, then hang on: 4-3 against Brighton at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea barely needed half an hour to look home and dry. Romeo Lavia struck on 4, Pedro Neto on 14, Joao Pedro on 32. Three-nil, Stamford Bridge purring, Brighton nowhere.

Then the game turned strange. Malick Yalcouyé pulled one back before half-time, Joao Pedro sliced into his own net on 63, and suddenly it was 3-2 with Brighton in complete control of the ball. Cole Palmer's finish on 74 made it 4-2 and proved decisive. Pascal Groß headed a sixth-minute-of-stoppage-time consolation for the visitors.

74% possession, and still beaten

Brighton had 647 passes to Chelsea's 227 and 74.1% of the ball. They also went home with nothing. Chelsea's 2.97 xG to 1.49 says the early blitz was no fluke, even if the last half hour was a scramble.

Xabi Alonso now has two wins from two league games as Chelsea manager, after opening with a 3-2 win at Fulham.

Three days removed from Europe

Brighton arrived at Stamford Bridge three days after a Conference League play-off, a fixture the Premier League itself had moved for exactly that reason. Fabian Hurzeler's side had opened the season by putting four goals past Aston Villa in 31 minutes on the back of 73.1% possession, so the shape of this game was not unfamiliar to them — carrying the ball, starving the opponent of it. What was different is that they carried it even more here, 74.1% by full time, and still went three goals down before the half-hour. Whether that gap between control and cutting edge came from the midweek trip or from Chelsea's early ferocity is not something a stats sheet settles, but the pattern matches: Brighton dominated the ball in this game and still needed a fightback just to make the scoreline respectable.

The following weekend told a different story for each side

Chelsea's next match was at the Emirates, where Morgan Rogers — a player Arsenal had tried to sign over the summer — put them ahead inside two minutes. Kai Havertz levelled it before half-time and Martin Ødegaard turned the game around five minutes into the second half, and Alonso picked up his first defeat in charge, 2-1, after the wins over Fulham and Brighton. Brighton, at home to Leeds United, conceded early yet again — Jayden Bogle scored inside 15 minutes, the visitors' first goal at the Amex in 12 years — before Luka Vuskovic's header rescued a point in a 1-1 draw. Brighton had 67.1% of the ball that day too, more shots than Leeds and the same number on target, and once again came away with less than the possession numbers suggested they should have.

Three matchweeks into the season, Chelsea sit 4th on 6 points with a goal difference of +1 — eight goals for and seven against, a tally this game against Brighton did plenty to shape in both directions. Brighton are 10th on 4 points, with a goal difference of +3 that is healthier than several clubs above them in the table, evidence that the four goals they scored here and the four they put past Aston Villa in the opening week have kept their underlying numbers competitive even when the results have not matched them.

Match facts

• 4' — Romeo Lavia (Chelsea)
• 14' — Pedro Neto (Chelsea)
• 32' — Joao Pedro (Chelsea)
• 35' — Malick Yalcouyé (Brighton)
• 63' — Joao Pedro (Chelsea), own goal
• 74' — Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
• 90+6' — Pascal Groß (Brighton)

What's next

Chelsea go third on 6 points, inside the Champions League places after two rounds. Brighton drop to 8th on 3 points after their first defeat. Matchweek 3 sends Chelsea to Arsenal, while Brighton host Leeds United at the Amex.