Chelsea held off a Brighton fightback to clinch a thrilling 4-3 victory and continue their winning start under manager Xabi Alonso.
The Blues raced into a three-goal lead through Romeo Lavia, Pedro Neto and former Brighton forward Joao Pedro in a scintillating opening period at Stamford Bridge, but the visitors responded.
Malick Yalcouye slammed home before the break to give them hope and they reduced the deficit to one goal when a Pascal Gross shot deflected off Joao Pedro and beyond Emiliano Martinez, who was making his debut following his £7.5m arrival from Aston Villa.
Brighton had further chances, with Diego Gomez going close and Martinez making several impressive stops as the visitors limited Chelsea to only 25.6 per cent possession, the club’s lowest share on record in a Premier League game.
But Cole Palmer found the bottom corner in superb style for Chelsea’s fourth goal, meaning there was no time for Brighton to mount a comeback when Gross headed in deep in stoppage time.
Chelsea were without Enzo Fernandez, who was left out of the squad for a second consecutive game amid interest from Manchester City, while Moises Caicedo had to come off injured soon after coming on for his first appearance of the season.
But the victory continues a positive start under Alonso. While the new Chelsea manager has issues to address defensively, his side’s new-look attack proved too much for their opponent for the second game in a row following their 3-2 win over Fulham.
Joao Pedro and Palmer were on target for a second consecutive game, while record signing Morgan Rogers added an assist to his goal against the Cottagers when he crossed for Neto’s strike.
Brighton, meanwhile, showed impressive spirit after their nightmarish start to the game despite a lengthy list of injuries, with Yasin Ayari missing out along with Georginio Rutter, Jack Hinshelwood, Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh.
