Chelsea's comeback win against Brighton shows progress

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7 minutes into the Brighton game Chelsea went 1-0 down. Caicedo passed backwards instead of clearing the ball, Colwill's attempted clearance was blocked, and then Robert Sanchez attempted to run and punch the ball away, failed, and Rutter was able to head into an empty net.

From that point on I got slightly worried. All I wanted was three points, and now Chelsea had to come back from behind to reach that point. Brighton had a young exciting head coach and a good start to the season with three wins and two draws in five games. 

Chelsea, so far this season, have failed to win when their opponents score first, and so my mind went into worry that the team would switch off, lack motivation, and maybe even concede another goal.

Luckily, we set up well to exploit Brighton's high line, we had the talent in midfield to send accurate, first time passes in behind, and after 30 minutes gone in the game, Cole Palmer had a hat-trick. Panic over. 

Having that fight to come back from behind to win the match, is progress. 

There are lots of positives to take from this game - I think our attack is the best in the league at the moment (we've scored the most goals at time of writing), but the linkup, understanding, and particularly the unselfishness from several players, is crucial to that fact. 

Of course a clean sheet would have been great, but Sanchez had a bit of a rough day; pointing blame isn't the best thing but he was at fault for both goals. I still think defensively we've gotten a lot better, but there's still room to grow there. I think Maresca is also nonplussed about the fact, as he said in post match that we're always going to concede goals in that fashion whilst playing his system. Make of that what you will. 

I was looking at the table last night and considered the mad thought that Chelsea might be title contenders this season. I don't think that's the case. I think Chelsea have started the season well - we've essentially carried on our good end to last season under Poch - albeit with some slight tactical tweaks from Maresca. I like Maresca's attitude, aside from a few things I think he says all the right things.

This team is still very raw and I think Top 4 should be the target first before we start to think about a title push. This team also deserves Champions League football. But this team first and foremost needs time and gradual growth before we can start having that conversation.