Chelsea welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to Stamford Bridge seeking to halt a two-game winless run in the Premier League. The Blues have won only two of their five league outings this term and enter the weekend mindful of a difficult recent history with this opponent. Chelsea suffered two defeats in the space of six days to Brighton in February, including a 3\u20130 loss at the Amex Stadium.<\/p>\n
Brighton arrive in strong mood after scoring six unanswered goals against Barnsley midweek and registering positive results already this season, including taking points off Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. The Seagulls have lost both of their Premier League away matches this season, but their midweek form and a settled squad make them a clear threat. Brighton will face former employees Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Marc Cucurella, Robert S\u00e1nchez and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s squad is depleted. Cole Palmer was substituted after just 20 minutes in the defeat to Manchester United last weekend with a nagging groin injury. Maresca has confirmed the attacking midfielder “will return after the October international break .” Tosin Adarabioyo is set to make his comeback after the upcoming international period following a calf injury. Wesley Fofana will miss the Brighton clash after suffering a concussion midweek. Fofana joins Levi Colwill, Liam Delap and D\u00e1rio Essugo on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Rom\u00e9o Lavia could make his comeback after an absence since the FIFA Club World Cup. Marc Guiu and Josh Acheampong should be available following injury and illness that kept them out of the Lincoln City win. Facundo Buonanotte is ineligible to face his parent club and Mykhailo Mudryk remains suspended for failing a drugs test.<\/p>\n
Brighton head coach Fabian H\u00fcrzeler confirmed Mats Wieffer and Maxim De Cuyper are available, while Yankuba Minteh and Brajan Gruda have been passed fit. Jack Hinshelwood, Solly March and Adam Webster remain unavailable. Diego G\u00f3mez\u2019s four-goal haul against Barnsley has likely earned him a starting role in attacking midfield.<\/p>\n
Chelsea predicted lineup vs. Brighton (4-2-3-1): S\u00e1nchez; Gusto, Chalobah, Hato, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Est\u00eav\u00e3o, Fern\u00e1ndez, Neto; Pedro.<\/p>\n
Brighton predicted lineup vs. Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Veltman, Van Hecke, Dunk, De Cuyper; Baleba, Ayari; Minteh, G\u00f3mez, Mitoma; Rutter.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have won all three matches without Cole Palmer this season, but his creativity will be missed against a well-organised Brighton side ready to capitalise on any slip-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea host Brighton as injuries bite; Palmer out, Fofana ruled out and Brighton fresh from 6-0 win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773,190,969],"tags":[878,215,319],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-brajan-gruda","tag-carlos-baleba","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}