Chelsea survive Brighton fightback to maintain perfect Premier League start

The hosts appeared to be cruising after racing into a three-goal lead inside the opening 32 minutes, but Brighton repeatedly threatened to turn the match around before Cole Palmer's outstanding finish finally restored some breathing room.

Romeo Lavia opened the scoring after just four minutes when Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen failed to hold Joao Pedro's header from a corner, leaving the midfielder with a simple finish.

Chelsea doubled their advantage 10 minutes later. Morgan Rogers beat Luka Vuskovic on the left before delivering for Pedro Neto, who got ahead of Ferdi Kadioglu to score.

Former Brighton forward Joao Pedro then added a third in the 32nd minute, beating the offside trap after Jorrel Hato raced beyond Mats Wieffer and picked him out.

The Seagulls refused to fold, however, and Malick Yalcouye gave them hope shortly before half-time. Emiliano Martinez, making his Chelsea debut following his 7.5 million pound move from Aston Villa, had denied Charalampos Kostoulas, but Yalcouye struck the rebound.

Brighton continued to press after the interval and were rewarded in the 63rd minute. Pascal Gross' shot took a significant deflection off Joao Pedro, wrong-footing Martinez and cutting the deficit to one.

The visitors had opportunities to level, with Diego Gomez going close and Martinez making several important saves, but Palmer produced a moment of individual quality in the 74th minute. The Chelsea forward curled a superb effort from outside the area into the bottom corner to make it 4-2.

Gross headed Brighton's third deep into stoppage time, but there was no time for another twist as Chelsea held on.

The result means Alonso has begun his first Premier League campaign with consecutive wins, following last weekend's 3-2 victory over Fulham. Chelsea have scored seven goals across the two matches but have conceded five, highlighting both the attacking threat and defensive issues still facing the new manager.

There was further concern when Moises Caicedo was forced off shortly after coming on for his first appearance of the season.

Chelsea were also without Enzo Fernandez, who was omitted from the squad for a second successive league match amid reported interest from Manchester City.

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