Chelsea 4-3 Brighton: Emi Martinez Debuts, Cole Palmer Curls, and Alonso's Side Hang On

Cole Palmer in action for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. His 74th-minute curler restored the two-goal cushion against Brighton. Photo: Crusadaer, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Chelsea were three up inside 32 minutes and still needed Cole Palmer to save them. That is roughly the shape of Xabi Alonso's first home league game in charge, which finished 4-3 and kept a perfect start intact.

Verbruggen's four minutes

Romeo Lavia's first goal for the club came from a corner and a mess. Mats Wieffer did well to block Joao Pedro's header on the line. Bart Verbruggen then spilled the rebound and Lavia had a tap-in. Four minutes gone.

Ten minutes later Morgan Rogers got the better of Luka Vuskovic on the left and crossed for Pedro Neto, who beat Ferdi Kadioglu to it and prodded home. On 32 minutes Jorrel Hato beat Wieffer for pace and squared for Joao Pedro to score against the club that sold him. Three-nil, and Stamford Bridge settled in for a comfortable evening.

Brighton got back into it three times

They pulled one back before the break. Emi Martinez came off his line to deny Charalampos Kostoulas, the ball dropped, and Malick Yalcouye volleyed in. On 63 minutes Yalcouye set up Pascal Gross, whose shot took a heavy deflection off Joao Pedro and beat Martinez. Suddenly 3-2 with half an hour left.

Palmer ended the nerves in the 74th minute, or thought he had. He picked the ball up outside the box, shifted it onto his left and curled it past Verbruggen. Gross headed a third from virtually the final action of the match, but there was no time for a fourth.

Martinez, four hours after signing

Alonso named Emiliano Martinez in the starting XI less than four hours after Chelsea confirmed his £7.5m arrival. He turns 34 next week. He had fallen out of favour at Aston Villa after a failed move to Juventus and the arrival of Zion Suzuki.

The Bridge cheered every catch. He was unlucky with two of the three he conceded, since the first came off his own save and the second off Joao Pedro's leg, and his best moment was a sharp diving stop from Diego Gomez just before Brighton's second. He also denied Olivier Boscagli what would have been an equaliser.

Robert Sanchez was not in the squad at all. Mike Penders, 21, was the backup instead. Sanchez cost £25m from Brighton in 2023 and had another difficult afternoon in the 3-2 win at Fulham on the opening weekend. With the window closing on Tuesday, his name has moved to the top of a long list of players Chelsea would like to move on.

Reality check for Brighton

Fabian Hurzeler's side beat Aston Villa 4-0 a week ago and arrived expecting to compete. Their back line, Vuskovic included at £46m, could not handle the width from Hato and Neto or the movement of Palmer, Rogers and Joao Pedro. That was the first half.

The second was a different team, and Brighton had a midweek trip to Tromso to book their Conference League place in their legs. Yalcouye was the pick of them. Twenty years old, back from loan spells at Sturm Graz and Swansea, and involved in both of the first two goals. Hurzeler's job now is to work out why his side needed to go 3-0 down to look like themselves.

Chelsea go to Arsenal on Sunday 6 September, 16:30 BST. That will tell us considerably more than this did.