Big spenders, Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to rake home the points on Monday evening, and Brighton will yet have to settle with playing spoilers.
Premier League 2019/2020
Date: Monday, September 14th
Kick-off: 20:15 pm
Venue: Amex Stadium
Chelsea have already thrown down the gauntlet to their prominent rivals with an impressive splurge of signings in the summer transfer window, following the arrivals of a some big-money names.
Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva all joined Frank Lampard’s ambitious Blue Army for pretty decent sums, and thus, it will be little surprise if they fashion a fast start to their campaign. It is exciting times at Stamford Bridge these days.
Beside defending champions Liverpool who they face next after this one, Chelsea can count on a rather kind schedule to get things rolling in their favour, with winnable games versus West Brom, Crystal Palace and Southampton coming up.
Brighton on their part, should pose enough challenge notwithstanding, and will be able to count on the services of top-profile recruit Adam Lallana who joined on a free from Liverpool in the off-season, as well as Joel Veltman from Ajax.
Graham Potter’s side spent much of last season battling to stave off relegation, and he will be wary of been dragged into it far too soon. A favourable result or even a decent showing here thus, becomes imperative but you have to go as far back as January 1933 (D2, L11 since) to the last time the Seagulls managed a victory over Chelsea.
So, where does this leave us, and what are the best betting angles to take from here?
Team news
Brighton
There are no missing players for Brighton as at the time of this publication.
Chelsea
Mateo Kovacic is suspended for this game following his dismissal in the FA Cup final.
Chilwell, Ziyech and Billy Gilmour are all expected to miss out on varying injuries here.
Head to Head
Chelsea have won 11 of their last 14 competitive meetings with Brighton, with two ending in draws.
Team form
Brighton last five competitive games: LLDDW
Chelsea last five competitive games: WLWLL
Betting tips
Chelsea are expected to hit the ground running right away following their spending this summer, and it is no surprise they are short on odds. However, their 4/6 for a straight victory in Sussex is still decent enough to bank on but one has to give some thoughts to the goals angle from here.
Brighton might be the underdogs but I expect them to have their chances, which could result to a certain amount of goals. Over 3.5 goals for 2/1 is our pick from the goals market.
Picking a correct score could be dicey but I think Chelsea will have at least a two-goal cushion at fulltime. Thus I’m tempted to add a 1-3 (14/1) or a 1-4 (28/1) to our selections to round off our tips for this game.
