Chelsea make the trip to Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday evening as they aim to pile more misery on the Seagulls.
Having been beaten on home soil by Everton previously, Brighton were stunned last weekend as they lost 7-0 against high-flying Nottingham Forest. Fabian Hurzeler’s side proved no match for Chris Wood and Anthony Elanga, who condemned them to a humiliating defeat.
Chelsea will be looking to take advantage of any nervousness or deflation on the south coast this weekend having returned to winning ways on Monday evening. The Blues beat London foes West Ham United 2-1 courtesy of Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s unfortunate own goal.
Brighton have a mountain of injuries at present and are guaranteed to be without Mats Wieffer, James Milner, Jason Steele, Ferdi Kadioglu, Solly March and Igor against Chelsea.
The trio of Carlos Baleba, Yasin Ayari and Pervis Estupinan are all major doubts for the weekend, although Hurzeler suggested that two of the three could be involved without revealing any further details.
Winter recruit Eiran Cashin is available and is not cup-tied as he didn’t represent Derby County in the competition this season. He could make his debut in some capacity.
Brighton predicted lineup vs Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Veltman, Van Hecke, Dunk, Lamptey; Gomez, O’Riley; Minteh, Rutter, Mitoma; Pedro.
Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu are both doubtful to feature at the weekend after sustaining injuries in the victory over West Ham. They could join Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia and David Datro Fofana – who the Blues recalled early from his loan at Goztepe – on the sidelines.
Chelsea were busy on deadline day and allowed four players to leave the club on temporary loan deals. Joao Felix, Carney Chukwuemeka, Ben Chilwell and Axel Disasi all departed, several of whom might have started against Brighton.
Chelsea predicted lineup vs Brighton (4-2-3-1): Jorgensen; Gusto, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Neto; Nkunku.
