After a huge win last weekend Chelsea will feel that they have just about saved their season as far as the title race goes. Going into their clash with Manchester City they found themselves a rather hefty 10 points behind the then league leaders.
However, the landscape has changed after their 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge last Saturday. One that sees not only the Blues just eight points off the top, but also with a new team at the head of proceedings.
With Liverpool going into this weekend’s set of fixtures at the summit, it has opened the title race wide open. Beforehand Manchester City were deemed as a team that is not one that could ever be caught.
But events in the past few days will have breathed a new wave of life into teams such as Tottenham and Chelsea, as they will feel that they can still be considered genuine title contenders in the weeks and months to come.
To do that though you cannot just win the big matches when it really matters you also have to take care of the bread and butter fixtures such as the one that they will be preparing for this weekend, one that sees them visit the South Coast to visit Brighton.
Chris Hughton’s men find themselves currently 13th in the table, however there is no real cause for concern though due to the fact that they are seven points clear of Cardiff who are currently lying a place below.
That breathing space means that Brighton can afford to look up the table rather than over their shoulders, at the same time they cannot rest on their laurels as it only takes two or three defeats in a row to change a club’s outlook.
And they will look to make sure that it is not successive Premier League defeats when Chelsea come to town, last weekend the Seagulls were defeated away at Burnley as Sean Dyche’s men picked up a much needed 1-0 win to claw themselves out of the bottom three.
At the same time though Brighton will still aspire of finishing in the top half come the end of the season, especially when you consider that there are just five points separating themselves and Manchester United who lie in sixth at the start of the weekend.
Brighton were comfortably beaten here by Chelsea last season in what was one of the rare high spots in a lacklustre campaign under Antonio Conte, however their home form has been a lot stronger this time around and they will look to make sure that the final outcome is not repeated.
Chelsea come here off the back of their Europa League exploits on Thursday, however with them already into the Round of 32 then they can easily afford to play a reserve lineup in midweek in what is nothing more than a dead rubber.
Brighton have been a tough nut to crack this season, but Chelsea will certainly be buoyed by their win over Manchester City last weekend, something that sets them in good stead for Sunday as they pick up a relatively routine away win.