While it may be Valentine’s Day, Chelsea duo Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo proved against Brighton that they are not a match made in heaven.
You would expect two £100m footballers to be very good at football, wouldn’t you? Well, Friday’s Premier League defeat was further proof that Caicedo and Fernandez are miles off justifying their huge transfer fees and that Romeo Lavia is a big miss in the Chelsea midfield.
Lavia made 10 Premier League matchday squads in a row during the Blues’ best period of the season, playing in eight of them, helping to inspire wins over Brighton, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Tottenham. The young Belgian’s injury problems are not going away after only playing 32 minutes in 2023/24 and the difference in midfield when he plays over Fernandez is night and day.
Fernandez and especially Caicedo have improved this season but they remain overhyped for the price Chelsea paid. Not for the first time this season, they were outshone by an opposition midfielder, who was able to beat the £200m pair by himself.
Carlos Baleba stood out for Brighton in their emphatic 3-0 win at the Amex. He was clearly the best central midfielder on the pitch, winning a couple of tackles while making four interceptions and five clearances. He was not that impressive on the ball but his defensive output was perfect, as the numbers show.
The Cameroon international was crucial in a completely different game plan to Chelsea’s, so comparisons to Caicedo and Fernandez can be deemed slightly unfair given the Brighton man was essentially instructed to play a different sport.
The Chelsea duo could not do anything meaningful in possession, looked awful in transition and defensively in general, committing four fouls between them and both picking up a yellow card.
Fabian Hurzeler deserves credit for a perfect game plan and for using Baleba exactly how he should. The promising young coach was more than happy for Chelsea to pass it around pointlessly and ensured Cole Palmer was kept quiet all night, while his team were devastating on the counter.
It is ultimately down to the players to implement the game plan and get the result their head coach has choreographed, but a nice bit of individual quality goes a long way as well.
As Chelsea dominated possession without threatening whatsoever, Brighton were ruthless and went ahead through one of the nicest goals you will see all season.
Kaoru Mitoma – who was named man of the match – scored a goal described as “pure genius” by Jamie Carragher on co-commentary. That was not an overstatement. The long ball from Bart Verbruggen emphasised Brighton’s different approach to Chelsea’s and Mitoma’s first touch was world class, his second put Trevoh Chalobah in a spin cycle and his last was too precise for Filip Jorgensen.
It was a unique goal and will go down as one of the best this season. Brighton were bold to rebuff Saudi Arabian approaches for Mitoma in January but that pretty much justified it.
A lot of the talk going into this game was about Chelsea’s injuries and how their attack would look. Christopher Nkunku started through the middle with Nicolas Jackson out and was embarrassingly ineffective. Typically, Noni Madueke was substituted with an injury in the 20th minute. Jadon Sancho was his replacement and was unable to redeem himself after a stinker on the same pitch last weekend.
Brighton’s attackers made the difference on the night as Mitoma opened the scoring and Yankuba Minteh bagged a brace.
Minteh’s first had its fortune but his second and Brighton’s third was pure class. He sent ex-Brighton boy Marc Cucurella – who was booed all evening – for a hotdog before smashing the ball past an unconvincing Jorgensen.
We can’t talk about that goal without mentioning the role Levi Colwill played in it, though. The Chelsea centre-back went down easily and sat on the floor claiming for a foul that never should be given, got up and trotted back into position as the gap he left was exposed by Minteh. Not a good look.
Injuries can not be an excuse when a player is doing that and a £200m pivot is being completely outplayed by a £22m midfielder on the other team.
One position Enzo Maresca has plenty of options is goalkeeper. The Chelsea boss answered questions over Robert Sanchez by declaring Jorgensen as his first-choice goalkeeper, and while we called for that to happen after Sanchez’s mistake against Wolves, it looks like Jorgensen is not the answer, with another summer of searching for a No. 1 on the cards.
Jorgensen’s distribution looked dodgy at best on an awful night for Maresca and his blue billion pound bottlejobs.
The Chelsea fans were not feeling the love after the full-time whistle – whether they were still in the stadium to berate the players or already halfway home.
Every away player had an awful night but the criticism will more often or not be directed towards the more expensive players, especially if an opposition player in the same position is arguably the best player on the pitch.
Baleba gave Caicedo and Fernandez a midfield lesson and the sooner Lavia returns for Chelsea, the better.
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