Welcome to Stamford Bridge; hope you’re having a lovely afternoon, morning, evening, time-of-day in your location. Hopefully the next couple hours don’t make things less lovely.
Brighton have had a habit of doing just that; in fact we’ve lost four in a row to them. Can Xabi Alonso change that?
Or maybe Emi Martínez can? The new goalkeeper was announced just hours ago, but he’s already starting! And talk about an interesting midfield…
Here we go!
Chelsea starting lineup (3-4-2-1): Martínez | Colwill (c),
Lacroix, Fofana | Hato, Lavia, Gusto, Neto | Rogers, Palmer | João Pedro
Substitutes from:
Penders, Acheampong, Chavarría, James, Barco, Caicedo, Estêvão, Gittens, Welbeck
Brighton starting XI:
Verbruggen, Dunk (c), Gross, Kostoulas, Boscagli, Kadioglu, Gomez, Weiffer, De Cuyper, Yalcouye, Vuskovic
Substitutes from:
Steele, Struijk, Hadjam, Promise, Osman, Costinha, Cozier-Duberry, O’Riley, Oriola
Date / Time: Sunday, August 30, 2026, 14.00 BST; 9am EDT; 6:30pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Michael Oliver (on pitch); Andrew Kitchen (VAR)
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); NBCSN (USA); Star Sports HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 4 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); NBC Sports Live (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!
