A late equalizer from Brighton’s Danny Welbeck dashed Chelsea’s hopes of keeping in touch with league leaders Manchester City, who themselves won later at Brentford to extend their lead at the top.
A fourth 1-1 home draw in five left Chelsea adrift of league leaders Manchester City and eight points behind the top prior to the turn of the year. Thomas Tuchel’s team, riddled with injuries, was outplayed by Graham Potter’s Brighton, who left Stamford Bridge with more possession, more shots, and a share of the spoils.
Chelsea lost Reece James and Andreas Christensen to injury in the first half. However, a minor positive was Romelu Lukaku finding his goal-scoring form; the Belgian scored his second in two games and gave the Blues the lead in the 28th minute by heading in a Mason Mount corner delivery.
Brighton responded strongly after going behind and dominated large spells of the game, either side of the break. A deserved equalizer for the Seagulls arrived in the 91st minute when substitute Danny Welbeck rose above Trevoh Chalobah and Antonio Rudiger to head a Marc Cucurella cross past a rooted Edouard Mendy. More dropped points, then, for the Blues, as they now find themselves closer to the fourth place than the first.
That is because Manchester City beat Brentford in their late kick-off to extend their lead at the top. The Citizens will head into the new year eight points clear at the top, after Phil Foden’s sole goal gave them the victory over a resilient Bees.
City survived an early – and rare – Brentford spell thanks to goalkeeper Ederson and his back four. They, then, punished Thomas Frank’s men for their failure to leave a dent in the City defence by taking the lead in the 16th minute.
A trademark Kevin De Bruyne whipped cross from the right half-space duped the Bees backline, and Foden timed his run beyond the last man to perfection to touch De Bruyne’s delivery past goalkeeper Alvaro Fernandez at his near post.
De Bruyne struck the post with an effort on the other side of the break while Aymeric Laporte had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside. It did not matter, in the end, as the Citizens recorded their tenth league win in a row.
