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Brighton Manager De Zerbi discloses the two Chelsea players he intentionally singled out.
Brighton football manager Roberto De Zerbi hailed his team’s performance in their 4-1 victory over Chelsea on Saturday and disclosed that he specifically targeted two blues players.
Graham Potter visited the Seagulls in what seemed to be a grudge match, and the new Chelsea manager was heckled and jeered by his former supporters, some of whom even yelled that he would be fired the next morning as the goals came in.
Leandro Trossard gave the home team the lead after only five minutes, but two own goals by Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Chalobah gave Brighton a three-goal lead going into halftime.
After the break, Kai Havertz scored, but Brighton played well before Pascal Gross added to the score in stoppage time.
Throughout the game, Brighton got enormous joy down the flanks with Estupinan and Kaoru Mitoma – who was involved in two of the goals – raiding down the left and March causing problems down the right.
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With Potter selecting Christian Pulisic and Raheem Sterling as a wing-back, De Zerbi felt Chelsea’s outside centre-backs – Chalobah and Marc Cucurella – could be exposed and went one-to-one against them.
De Zerbi responded to a question about whether he had focused on Chelsea’s outside centre-backs by saying:
‘We prepared the game one-to-one with Mitoma with Chalobah and one-to-one with Solly March against Cucurella. But Trossard was fantastic, Adam Lallana the same. All the players were fantastic.’
Speaking about the win more generally, he added: ‘I am very happy for the players, the club and the people who work with the team.
And, of course, the great fans because they were the best players on the pitch – they helped us so much. The first 20-25 minutes we were fantastic, in how we played with and without the ball. We played with an intensity I liked.
‘I won’t be celebrating too much, because next Saturday is another game and I made a mistake because they made a tactical change and I didn’t adapt. But 4-1 against Chelsea is still an amazing result and I hope everyone enjoys it.’
Asked about the booing of Potter by Brighton’s supporters, he told BBC Sport: ‘No I don’t want to speak for this. I am sorry for these things. I don’t know the situation of the past and I don’t want to know.’