After nearly a month on the road, Chelsea return home to more familiar confines. We’ve not had much luck on our travels, with just one win to show for the four games, so hopefully the Bridge can help us return to our strong
form from before.
And we’re going to need all the good home cooking, with an injury list that has suddenly exploded into a dozen strong, and with vibes that have been taken down several notches over the past few weeks. It’s a long season ahead; we just need to get back on track.
Date / Time: Saturday, September 27, 2025, 15.00 BST; 10am EDT; 7:30pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Simon Hooper (on pitch); Darren England (VAR)
Forecast: Overcast and mild
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); Star Sports Select HD2 (India); SuperSport MaXimo 1, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: none (UK); Peacock (USA); Disney+ Hotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: With another international break coming up after next weekend, Chelsea have decided to shut down Cole Palmer (groin) and Tosin Adarabioyo (calf) until then, while Wesley Fofana is also set to miss out after suffering a concussion midweek. They join fellow absentees Levi Colwill, Liam Delap, Dário Essugo, Roméo Lavia, and Benoît Badiashile. The return of the latter two is starting to be imminent at long last; the others are out long-term.
But that’s not all, as Marc Guiu’s doubtful due to a knock and Facundo Buonanotte is ineligible to face his parent club, which leaves us with barely enough first-team players to fill out a matchday squad. Thankfully, Josh Acheampong has returned to training following illness and Robert Sánchez was able to serve his one-match suspension against Lincoln City in the League Cup midweek. Filip Jörgensen has fumbled his opportunity to usurp Sánchez as the No.1 quite badly in these last two appearances, so presumably Bob will be back between the sticks.
Enzo Maresca did rotate his squad for the cup match and rested most of the first-choice starters — only Enzo Fernández and Trevoh Chalobah kept their places — so those players who are available should be well fit for this match.
Brighton & Hove Albion team news: Brighton have won both of their League Cup games by a 6-0 scoreline, including on Tuesday, but in the league, they’ve won just one of five played so far. That one win was against Manchester City however.
The summer saw plenty of turnover and a fair few departures, including of course João Pedro and the aforementioned Buonanotte (on loan) to Chelsea. Simon Adingra and Pervis Estupiñán have also left, as has former Chelsea prospect Tariq Lamptey, who joined Fiorentina in a £5m deal. Lamptey, who’s about to turn 25, leaves with over 100 Premier League appearances to his name, though perhaps without ever quite reaching his potential (just yet).
Left back Maxim De Cuyper and €35m teenage striker Charampaolos Kostoulas were the two big summer signings; Kostoulas has yet to make his Premier League debut while De Cuyper is currently dealing with a knee problem. So it’s going to be a lot of familiar faces and familiar dangermen, like Kaoru Mitoma and Carlos Baleba … and Danny Welbeck, who’s coming off a career-best 10-goal season in the league. He has a knack for making things annoying for us.
Previously: We beat Brighton at the Bridge last season, 4-2 — the Cole Palmer four-goal game — but then managed to lose the reverse fixture, 3-0 back in February. Yakuba Minteh scored a brace.
