I Just Missed!!

By Since66
August 5 2012

A beautiful day on the Sussex coast saw a fantastic turnout by Chelsea fans high up in the main stand, 90 odd steps up, to welcome back the Champions of Europe for the start of the 2012/13 season.  It is a shame that the team forgot to turn-up. Either they were still in the States or still on holiday.

Three defensive cock-ups gave Brighton the win, this after Super Frank had given Chelsea the lead on thrity-five minutes, with Chelsea’s best piece of passing throughout the whole ninety minutes.

Take nothing away from Brighton and Gus Poyet. They fully deserved the win. They were always behind the ball when Chelsea had possession and were quick on the attack when they won the ball back.

Chelsea simply struggled. There was no pride, desire or professionalism throughout the whole 90 minutes and Chelsea’s overall performance was akin to a very bad training session.

Brighton equalised through Vicente minutes after Super Frank’s opener, then just before half-time Brighton’s Ashley Barnes crashed in Albion’s 2^nd.

Four minutes from time, Crofts scored Brighton’s third to seal an impressive win and on this performance there is no reason why Brighton cannot challenge for promotion.

Bobby Di was rather generous in his post-match assessement. He said, “I was expecting more from my team in terms of urgency and movement. I was looking for a better performance than the one we gave today.

“We were too stretched, never aggressive enough and didn’t get the ball back quickly enough when we lost it. With the ball, there wasn’t enough movement and there were a lot of things we didn’t do.

We have to be more focused and sharper.”

In five pre-season games Chelsea have lost three, won one and drawn one and alarmingly have conceded ten goals.

Money Citeh must be rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation of next week’s season 2012/13 curtain raiser at Villa Park, a game, that has more bearing on Chelsea’s season after yesterday’s dire fare.

Chelsea’s Blue day continued at the Millenium Stadium as Danny Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand crashed out to South Korea after a penalty shoot-out, where Danny had his penalty saved.

Brighton: Kuszczak, Bruno, Greer (c), Dunk, Calderon, Bridcutt, Crofts, Dicker (Harley 58), Buckley (no one 64), Vicente, Barnes (Agdestein 89)

Goals: Vicente 37, Barnes 44, Crofts 86

Chelsea: Cech (Turnbull 64), Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c) (Luiz 60), Cole, Meireles (Mikel  h/t), Essien, Lampard, Ramires, Torres (Lukaku 78), Hazard.

Goal: Lampard 35

2012 FA CUP WINNERS, 2012 CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE

TWITTER: @WVOMChelsea