Chelsea crashed to a 4-1 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League earlier today, and Gary Lineker slammed the tactics by Graham Potter.
Graham Potter was handed a hiding against his former club as Chelsea were thoroughly outplayed by Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium. Meanwhile, Brighton continued their impressive start to the season with a morale-boosting win over the west London club. And the Seagulls are now eighth on the Premier League table.
The defeat sees Chelsea remain in fifth place with 21 points from 12 matches. But they could easily drop further down the table if the teams behind them manage to win their games this weekend.
It has been a disappointing start to the season for Chelsea by their standards and a club of their stature should be challenging for the Premier League title. It will be interesting to see if the Blues can bounce back strongly in the upcoming matches.
Reacting to the defeat, former Premier League star and popular pundit Gary Lineker has now claimed that Graham Potter’s tactics failed miserably against Brighton.
Potter’s system of a back 3 and wingers at wingback, which he changed very quickly from in Chelsea’s previous league games, has failed miserably in the first half at Brighton.
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) October 29, 2022
Changed tactics again at halftime and Chelsea much improved. https://t.co/JtOlbFfO73
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) October 29, 2022
Having managed Brighton for a considerable period, many would have expected Potter to have an upper hand in the clash at the Amex Stadium. Instead, it was Potter’s tactics that were found out as Brighton punished Chelsea on their way to the three points.
It was evident during the game that Potter’s back three system, with wingers deployed as the wing-backs, simply did not work out in the first half. And he was forced to make changes to the setup at half-time. However, the Blues were already 3-0 down, and it was too little too late to salvage the game.
Chelsea’s system allowed Brighton to dominate the proceedings in the first half, and they managed to test Kepa Arrizabalaga consistently. Fortunately, for the home side, Chelsea conceded two own goals (from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah) to pile further misery upon themselves.
That said, Brighton certainly deserved all three points based on their performance across the ninety minutes. It will be interesting to see if Chelsea can rise from the misery of the heavy defeat this weekend.
