Chelsea vs Brighton Predictions

• Chelsea have won nine of their last 11 home league games with over 1.5 goals in six.
• Brighton have conceded exactly two goals in three of their last four Premier League matches
• Enzo Fernandez has scored in both league games that Cole Palmer has missed this season

Blues keeper fails audition

Chelsea and Brighton got back to winning ways in midweek and the Blues being forced to fight back at Lincoln might stand them in good stead when the Seagulls visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Enzo Maresca’s side were put under pressure by the Imps, whose aerial bombardment of the penalty area unsettled stand-in goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen. If the Carabao Cup match was his chance to usurp Robert Sanchez as the Chelsea number one, he failed to convince.

Sanchez will be back between the posts for the visit of his former club this weekend after serving a one-game ban at Barnsley for his early red card at Old Trafford last weekend. The goalkeeper’s rush of blood in denying a goalscoring chance by fouling Bryan Mbeumo significantly shaped the outcome of the contest.

Palmer and Delap injuries put focus on Joao Pedro and Fernandez

Sanchez may be on thin ice at the moment but another ex-Seagull, Joao Pedro, isn’t. The Brazilian is now Maresca’s sole full-time striker option after Liam Delap’s injury and he will start on Saturday after sitting out the 2-1 comeback win on Tuesday.

The ex-Watford star has scored in two of Chelsea’s last four Premier League games but the better anytime goalscorer candidate for this clash could be Enzo Fernandez. The midfielder assumes penalty duties in Cole Palmer’s injury-enforced absence and scored in both league games that the England star missed earlier this season.

Brighton’s new goal hero is Diego Gomez, who hit four in his side’s 6-0 rout at Oakwell on Tuesday. He could be back in a deeper role for this clash, however, with Carlos Baleba still worryingly out of sorts from a Seagulls perspective.

Baleba’s body language looked bad 

Fabian Hurzeler tried to play the Cameroonian back into form at Barnsley but his touch was off and his body language looked pretty poor during his 53 minutes on the pitch. Brighton’s ability to transition from defence to attack is being hampered by Baleba’s funk and it may well mean that they lose a third away league game in a row on Saturday.

Chelsea beat Fulham in their last top-flight home clash and were the ones pushing for victory late on in the goalless opening-weekend contest at Stamford Bridge. Oddly, the Blues have won all three of the matches that Palmer has missed this season and failed to win any of the ones in which he played.

Back Chelsea to win with at least two goals scored in the game. The Seagulls cannot be fully trusted to get on the scoresheet after failing to register at Everton and managing only two shots on target at Bournemouth, but they have conceded twice in three of their last four league games overall while Chelsea are averaging two goals per game this term.