Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella marked his return to the starting line-up with a strong display against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup 3rd round.
The London giants ended a 3-match winless run against the Seagulls on Wednesday night. They picked up a 1-0 victory thanks to Nicolas Jackson, who scored only his 2nd goal since joining the club from Villarreal this summer. Cole Palmer, who made his full Chelsea debut, provided the assist for the 50th minute goal.
Chelsea managed to comfortably see off the threat from Brighton over the remaining minutes. Cucurella should earn plenty of plaudits for the victory after he got the better of Kaoru Mitoma and Joao Pedro. The Spaniard started in an unfamiliar right-back role but did tremendous well to win the majority of his challenges.
According to Whoscored, Cucurella won an outstanding 13 out of 16 duels against Brighton. He also won an extraordinary 9 tackles and it could be a career defining performance for the Spaniard. Cucurella has not played a single minute in the Premier League and he has been on the bench in 5 of the opening 6 games of the season.
His only appearances have come in the Carabao Cup. The performance against Brighton will have won the confidence of manager Mauricio Pochettino. Cucurella deserves to keep his place at right-back versus Fulham next week. Chelsea will be without Malo Gusto for the game after his straight red card in the Aston Villa defeat.
Chelsea have had a woeful start to the top-flight campaign with just 5 points from 6 games. They will be hoping to use the Brighton win as a springboard to turnaround their season. Jackson’s link-up play with Palmer was mesmerising to watch and the striker was denied a 2nd goal due to a contentious offside decision with no VAR in place. Jackson won’t be available for the derby at Fulham after accumulating five yellow cards in the league which results in an automatic one game ban.
