Chelsea vs Brighton & Hove Albion

Chelsea will be looking to close out an utterly impressive 2021 on a high when they take on Brighton & Hove Albion in their final Premier League match of the calendar year at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea pulled off a come-from-behind 3-1 win at Aston Villa on Boxing Day to snap a run of back-to-back Premier League draws and remain within a six-point distance of pacesetters Manchester City. Coming back to Stamford Bridge may not necessarily be a good omen, as they’ve drawn three of their last four Premier League matches here (W1) despite taking the lead in two of those stalemates. Indeed, Thomas Tuchel’s men have conceded five goals across their last four Premier League home games, more than they had in their previous nine in the competition combined (4). However, Brighton’s visit to the capital certainly looks like a winnable fixture, given that the ‘Blues’ have never lost a league encounter against this opposition in their previous 12 such H2Hs (W10, D2).

In the meantime, Brighton & Hove Albion cruised to a 2-0 home victory over the Premier League debutants Brentford last time out, finally bringing their embarrassing 11-game winless league streak to a halt (D8, L3). Still, since winning their opening two away league matches this season by a single-goal margin each, the ‘Seagulls’ have gone winless in their last six Premier League road trips on the trot (D5, L1), scoring under 1.5 goals five times in the process. Graham Potter’s men often take their time before hurting their opposition away from home, having netted seven of their eight Premier League goals on hostile turf this term in the second half of play. After losing their final league match of 2020 to Arsenal, Brighton face the prospect of suffering defeats in such contests in two successive calendar years for the first time in a decade.