Brighton will be an effective test for an in-form Chelsea

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I was surprised by Fabian Hurzeler's presser this week and the positive words he gave towards Chelsea and a few of our players. I feel it's been a good long while since we've had such detailed praise from an opposition manager, usually its more of a generalised statement about how much we've spent or something similar. 

Hurzeler singled out Nicholas Jackson in his comments, and he's very right to.

"I think he is the full package. He wants to combine. Sometimes he's getting more space where he can combine with his teammates."

 

"He's also very fast - he can attack the defence. This mix, this balance, makes him very dangerous for us. Of course, he is a top striker and at the moment he's in very good shape, so you can't defend against them in a one-against-one."

I was of the belief that even if we landed a big money number 9 in the summer, you couldn't just eliminate Jackson completely from the team. Yes, of course, there were crucial chances last year that he should have scored from, but if you peer a bit deeper, there's a lot of promise - and Maresca seems to be working well to bring out his best qualities so far.

Some Chelsea fans have called our run of games so far 'easy' and I can't dispute that - Wolves, Palace, West Ham and then Barrow in the league cup are all games that we shouldn't really be losing.

Brighton aren't exactly a top team but they can scare you - keep in mind they're still unbeaten in the league and shocked a lot of people with how they started, what with Hurzeler being the youngest Premier League manager by a mile, and this being his first season in English football. 

It'll be a test for Chelsea - if Maresca wants to implement Nkunku alongside Jackson then I think Palmer would shift to the right wing and Malo Gusto would overlap to keep the width of the right, with Nkunku and Palmer playing in the half spaces.

This will be a proper test for Chelsea's defense especially as Brighton like to commit several players forward into attack, and can overload Chelsea's half if we commit too many players forward. 

Having our attacking players contribute well in defense will prove important - Noni did this well in the West Ham game so he could keep his spot - especially as he also didn't feature against Barrow. In fact, Maresca shouldn't tinker too much in this game if he can help it because I feel Brighton can surprise us - perhaps in the second half if the match has turned in our favour, but not before kickoff. 

Most importantly of all, a win in this match would keep Chelsea's positive momentum going, which would help with the tougher games on the horizon, and it would prove that Maresca's setup is working and is yiedling positive results.