Chelsea fans entered today’s game against Brighton and Hove Albion in panic mode. Sitting tied for third in the Premier League but with no shot at winning the title, the team had appeared to have given up. They had scored one goal in their last four games, and had yet to win a match in regulation in 2018. Off the field, the assumption was that the club was a messy clash of personalities, as the media linked the team to every striker in England and predicted the impending departure of manager Antonio Conte.
Chelsea’s first half against Brighton obviously couldn’t be a total transformation into functionality, but it was pretty dang good. Eden Hazard took just three minutes to calm some fears with an almost immediate goal. Then, in the sixth minute, three Chelsea attackers combined for the kind of beautiful team goal you only see from clubs in perfect form.
Brighton is no powerhouse, Chelsea’s defense looked shaky later on in the half, and the team could very well still not give a shit about this season. But for a symbolic argument that everyone in the squad doesn’t hate each other, you couldn’t do much better than this goal.