Chelsea vs Brighton

Seven goals. First home win. Stamford Bridge made to sweat until the final whistle. Chelsea's season is coming alive — and João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, or the JP Morgan front-line, is at the heart of everything.

Chelsea were 3–0 up before half-time and it could have been more. Romeo Lavia opened in the 4th minute — an opportunistic finish after some confusion in the Brighton defensive ranks on how best to handle a Chelsea corner — before Pedro Neto doubled it in the 14th with a lovely tap in after Morgan Rogers produced some great skills and strength to put the ball in the box. João Pedro made it three in the 32nd, finishing clinically after a Hato run on the counter. Xabi Alonso's side looked unstoppable having strutted to what seemed to be an insurmountable lead.

Brighton clawed back to 3–2 before the hour. Malick Yalcouyé pulled one back just before the break. Then — in a somewhat fortuitous manner, they scored again through a João Pedro own goal when he deflected a Brighton cross into his own net in the 63rd minute, making it 3–2. Suddenly Stamford Bridge was nervous. And Brighton brightened.

But Cole Palmer killed the light in the 74th minute. A Palmer finish is one of the most reliable things in English football, and he provided it here — composure, placement, ruthlessness. 4–2. Brighton still managed a Pascal Groß goal in the sixth minute of injury time to make it 4–3, but the points were already Chelsea's. Emi Martinez, in Chelsea's goal, was equal to everything that mattered when it mattered most.

Four goals scored. A solid performance from Martinez when it counted. The Blues look like a team that knows what it is this season — and what it is capable of.

The Couch predicted Chelsea 3–1. Seven goals and a 4–3 was not the clinical victory anticipated, but the right team won. The Couch marks it correct and moves on with moderate satisfaction.