Chelsea 4-3 Brighton: Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer on target as Blues edge seven-goal thriller

Chelsea’s winning start to life under Xabi Alonso continued with a pulsating 4-3 win over Brighton at Stamford Bridge.

It was another display of electrifying attacking football that should have had the game won inside half-an-hour, goals from Romeo Lavia, Pedro Neto and Joao Pedro putting the home side into a three-goal lead that was then almost dismantled by a brave Brighton fightback and their own clumsy defending.

Malick Yalcouye crashed in his first goal for the Seagulls, beating goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez on his debut, then Joao Pedro’s own goal had Chelsea teetering on the edge of an embarrassing collapse on the hour.

As often before in such circumstances, they turned to Cole Palmer. He took matters into his own hands to take the game away from the visitors and send Alonso racing down the touchline in celebration, bulldozing through midfield to lash in his team’s fourth.

The question remains whether a title challenge is plausible while the Blues’ defence remains this obliging. Most alarming was not that Brighton pulled back to within one goal, but the loss of control the team suffered when they came under pressure.

Even with the game won deep in stoppage time, Pascal Gross was given time and space to nod in an easy consolation goal.

There was no place in the Chelsea squad for Enzo Fernandez, whose departure before Tuesday’s transfer deadline appears increasingly likely, nor Robert Sanchez, whose errors in the win over Fulham may prove to be his last for Chelsea following the arrival of Martinez.