A rare Saturday outing saw Brighton take on the might of Chelsea at the Broadfield. It was always going to be a tough ask for the Albion against the league leaders and current WSL champions – and so it proved.

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Although the Blues dominated the play and possession early, Brighton pressed well and held their opponents in check for the most part. On 12 minutes Guro Reiten unleashed a drive from just inside the box which crashed off the angle of post and bar. It would have been a worldie of a goal, but I think had it been on target, Sophie Baggaley would likely have saved it.

It took Lauren James until the 20th minute to have some joy on one of her trademark mazy runs, which is a minor achievement in and of itself. It wasn’t all one way either, Albion had two or three counter attacks that at least came as a warning to Chelsea that this wasn’t going to be a walkover.

The biggest chance of the half came as Reiten was able to whip a ball across the face of the box. Fran Kirby desperately stretched out a leg and it seemed the ball could only hit the back of the net from such short range, but thankfully for the Seagulls it ricocheted off the top of her foot and ballooned over the bar (38′).

So the teams went in to the break level at 0-0, Chelsea clearly on top, but Brighton showing enough that maybe, just maybe, they could get something from the game.

I don’t know what Emma Hayes said to her team, I’m not exactly sure where she tweaked the tactics, but Chelsea came out a different beast. That and Brighton have been much worse defensively in the second half of games, almost shockingly so – more on that later.

Within a minute of the restart a well-worked passing move down the left-hand side allowed Niamh Charles to cross low into the box where James was waiting to finesse a shot high into the top corner of the net (46′). Baggaley had no chance, it was a pinpoint strike and one befitting the quality of a player like James. It just shows though, lose concentration against a team like Chelsea, ride your luck one too many times, and they will punish you. Like death and taxes, they are inevitable.

The killer blow came just five minutes later (51′) and it came from, you guessed it, a set piece – again. The corner came in and wasn’t cleared away by the Albion defender, more so flicked onwards. Melanie Leupolz nodded the ball towards goal, where Fran Kirby was able to divert it in with her own header from short range. Just really poor all-round, from the initial clearance to the lack of marking, to the follow up on the second (and indeed third) ball.

Unfortunately now Brighton had to come out and try to score, to outplay one of the best domestic sides on the planet – which was always going to be nigh on impossible. There was a glimmer of hope though, Pauline Bremer who has *almost* scored so many times this season turned Charles inside out on the edge of the box and lofted a shot that looped over Hannah Hampton only to see it cannon off the post and away.

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So near then became so far as Chelsea made it 3-0 in the 59th minute. With Brighton pushing high and the defense out of shape, another cross into the box was not cleared effectively. The loose ball fell to James just inside the area who instinctively drove the ball low and hard to Baggaley’s right.

In terms of the result, that was game over, and you wouldn’t have been surprised if Chelsea had taken the opportunity to inflate their goal difference. Reiten probably should have made it four in the 83rd minute, but Baggers anticipated where the Norwegian was going to place her shot and saved it comfortably. The Albion fought though, they didn’t give up, they tried hard and they kept the energy high. That showed an element of pride, an element of fight, that will serve Brighton well as they face some tricky fixtures coming up.

The manner of defeat was in some ways frustrating, their first two goals coming almost immediately after the break in a tough ten-minute period. Truthfully the third goal was born of the fact that we suddenly had to chase the game which left obvious weaknesses for an elite team to exploit. Equally expectations have be realistic. A loss like this, where you genuinely believe that the goals conceded were preventable, and you show the ability to threaten them on occasion, is acceptable. We aren’t as good as Chelsea – this isn’t new news – but can the way we play against them help us when we play other teams? I hope so.

Notes

• Set Pieces. That’s the note.
• Brighton have conceded 6 goals in the first half of WSL matches this season versus 21 in the second half. If you lower that time to the first 42 minutes of a game it becomes 3 versus 24. Chasing games is going to be part of it, but to average two goals conceded every game after the 43rd minute is deeply concerning.
• I won’t go into any other stats as Chelsea controlled the game, as expected, and the numbers reflect that.
• No Maisie Symonds or Katie Robinson from the start which surprised me as they are probably two of our most creative players. I assume it was for tactical reasons, which you could argue worked in the first half, but it was too little too late when they came on in the second.
• Tatiana Pinto did start, which I was glad about, but I’m not sure this was ever going to be a game she could really stamp her mark upon. I’d like to see her given a consistent run in the team.
• Lee Guem-min came on and galvanised the attack somewhat. In a side desperate for ball-carriers we could use her ability more often at the moment, but there’s obviously a reason (or several) that she almost never starts a game.
• Set Pieces. Just in case they had slipped your mind.
• I think Chelsea were a little surprised by how combative and well-organised Brighton were in the first half. Emma Hayes is so good at making just a few tweaks, and completely changing the game though. At 45 minutes you think you’re doing well, by 59 minutes you’re 3-0 down. That’s why she gets the (deserved) big bucks!
• Mayra Ramirez made her WSL debut coming on for Lauren James. Although she’ll need time to bed in, I’ve been a fan of Ramirez since the World Cup and although she was expensive, I do think she’s an almost nailed on 20-goal-a-season threat.
• There were 4500 fans at this game, well over a 100% increase from last week against Bristol City. Even factoring in the increased away support – questions need to be ask about such a large gap given both were WSL games.
• Oh and Brighton need to work on their set pieces.