Chelsea make the familiar trip to the Amex Stadium on Friday night to face Brighton in a Premier League clash.
Brighton hosted Chelsea last Saturday in the FA Cup fourth round, winning 2-1 to knock the Blues out of the competition.
The reality is Enzo Maresca’s visiting side were miles from their best levels, so they can’t have too many complaints about the defeat to Brighton. Hopefully, they can respond emphatically to earn three league points.
Chelsea’s injury list ahead of Brighton features some big players, including centre-forward Nicolas Jackson. All eyes will be on the team sheet to see if Christopher Nkunku gets the nod to start as the central striker again.

Fabian Hurzeler claim about the Brighton fans vs Chelsea
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has highlighted that the home supporters at the Amex Stadium were full of tension and emotion in the recent showdown with Chelsea in the FA Cup. Interestingly, he does see it as an advantage for his players to use.
The Brighton fanbase aren’t too keen on Chelsea because they’ve signed the likes of Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanche from them in recent years. Plenty of background staff have moved between the top-flight clubs, too.
Ahead of Brighton’s second home match against Chelsea in the space of six days, Hurzeler said via The Athletic: “I think the tension is there. You can feel it in the stadium, because a lot who played for Brighton in the past play now for Chelsea, so you can feel that the crowd is not happy about that.
“I like that we have this tension, because it shows that we are ready to fight against them, you are ready to fight against a big opponent.
“You need to have the right attitude towards games like this, you need to have the right mindset. I love it when it’s a little bit emotional. It’s very important to stay calm in the right moments, to make the right decisions to not get too emotional.
“Because then you lose the cool head, you lose the faze of making the right decisions, so therefore I think it’s very important to have the mix. But if we can get the energy out of this rivalry, out of these tensions, then we can use it as an advantage.”
Back in September, Hurzeler described Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson as the “full package”. Therefore, he may be glad seeing that his side doesn’t have to come up against him again.
Nkunku did very little as the striker in the cup defeat to Brighton, so the Blues need to find a solution in the No 9 spot. At the very least, he must be instructed to not to drop as deep as he likes.
Chelea fans have suggested using winger Pedro Neto as the striker for the upcoming trip to Brighton.

It looks like there may be some animosity between the managers to add some extra flavour to the Brighton and Chelsea fixture. This is because of some eye-catching comments from the Blues head coach in the lead up to Friday’s match.
When asked about Hurzeler’s impact this season, Maresca responded via The Evening Standard: “I prefer not to say anything about their manager.”
Afterwards, when asked at the end of his press conference whether he considered Hurzeler a ‘top manager’, Maresca simply smiled and said: “Thank you very much.”
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the touchline to see if there’s any fallout between the respective coach’s.