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Key events
Chelsea 3-1 Brighton
A Gross cross comes in and Gomez can only head over. Brighton, with so many players out, are not done here. Chelsea’s defence needs some work; what will the window bring?
Sunderland 0-0 Fulham
The home team have dominated without creating too much while Fulham’s mavericks have not seen nearly enough of the ball.
Goal! Leeds 0-1 Brentford (Schade, 41)
That’s the goal they deserved. Lewis-Potter’s cross comes in, and Schade’s finish is a beauty, with the outside of his boot and in.
Leeds 0-0 Brentford
Eric Pietersen gets in touch: “I wonder how much of the quick pace that’s caught your eye is teams realizing what a waste of time possession becomes if your opponent has time to set up their low block.
“If you’re reduced to passes around the block’s perimeter, with hopeful crosses into a crowded box and threading the needle to a cutter your only positive attacking options, possession becomes its own liability.
I see teams dawdling on the ball less and less once they get it, and I think it’s great. To paraphrase the beloved Kevin Keegan, if all teams treat possession as the fragile commodity with a very short useful shelf life that it seems to be in the modern day, I will love it. Love it.”
Goal! Chelsea 3-1 Brighton (Yalcouyé, 39)
Brighton back in it? A sweet volley from the debutant, and there will be no clean sheet for Martinez. That’s a stretch of 18 matches without.
Leeds 0-0 Brentford
Joe Rodon has left the field, injured, and to applause. On comes the new signing, Nico Elvedi, signed after 11 years at Borussia Monchengladbach.
Goal! Chelsea 3-0 Brighton (Joao Pedro, 34)
Chelsea rampant. Another former Brighton player gets the goal this time. Hato goes down the left, and lays the ball into the path of Joao Pedro, who slots with ease.
Chelsea 2-0 Brighton
Malick Yalcouyé, the Brighton youngster, has a whiff of a chance. Chelsea haven’t kept a clean sheet for some time. It’s a young attack, with Kostoulas at centre-forward. Danny Welbeck is warming up…as a Chelsea player.
Chelsea 2-0 Brighton
Both Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali were pictured at the Bridge, but not sat together. This has been a bright start to the season, despite all the ructions behind the scenes.
Leeds 0-0 Brentford
All the set pieces that matter. Michael Kayode wins a free kick when pulled over by Jayden Bogle. Damsgaard’s free-kick comes out for Sangare to shoot but his shot is blocked, and Kayode fires wide. Brentford the better team at Elland Road by far.
Sunderland 0-0 Fulham
It’s a very even contest up in the north east. The new Fulham are similar to the old Fulham though Alvaro Arbeloa likes to play an even more open style than Marco Silva. They have a free kick after Ballard fouls Castagne. Alex Iwobi takes but Palacios, one of the new players from Real Madrid, handballs. The free-kick was dreadful, frankly.
Goal! Chelsea 2-0 Brighton (Neto, 14)
Up in the Stamford Bridge stands, Thomas Tuchel is sat with Carlo Ancelotti, and they are watching Chelsea turn it on. Morgan Rogers carves down the left, and his ball inside is converted by Pedro Neto.
Sunderland 0-0 Fulham
Granit Xhaka, who chose to stay on Wearside rather than join Chelsea, has been running the show in midfield.
Leeds 0-0 Brentford
James Trafford, the world’s most expensive keeper by collective transfer fees, is asked to make a save from Igor Thiago and then from Keane Lewis-Potter.
Chelsea 1-0 Brighton
A corner to Brighton, taken by Pascal Gross and Emi Martinez climbs high to palm away.
Chelsea 1-0 Brighton
A set-piece goal, and one that Austin McPhee enjoyed, though it owed a fair bit to a flap from Bart Verbruggen.
Goal! Chelsea 1-0 Brighton (Lavia, 5)
The forgotten man stabs in from close range after the ball drops to him after a melee in the Brighton box. He really enjoyed that goal.
Leeds 0-0 Brentford
Brentford have started this season so brightly, while Leeds are chasing everything. The Premier League so far, in its early stages, seems to be played quicker than ever.
Chelsea 0-0 Brighton
Brighton start brightly. Chelsea have Malo Gusto in midfield, with Reece James stepping out with those continuing worries over his fitness.
Away we go in the Premier League
Sunderland v Fulham get away fast, while the other two matches are still at the pre-match huddle stage.
In England, the teams are taking to the field. At Stamford Bridge, they are remembering Ken Bates and Bobby Tambling, the former Chelsea chairman and the legendary striker of the 1960s, both of whom passed away over the summer.
In Scotland, relief for Derek McInnes and Lawrence Shankland, after Rangers win at Aberdeen, with the striker scoring the goal.
Fabian Hurzeler spoke to Sky, as he shuffles his pack after injuries to Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter: ““I never complain about injuries. I’m a big believer in giving new opportunities to other players, I wouldn’t put them in the squad otherwise.”
The weekend’s Premier League match reports so far.
Mark Slater gets in touch: “I will be following the Chelsea vs Brighton match particulary, but am happy to see a Joy Division quote in the opening paragraphs. In Chelsea’s case, Brighton and Hove Albion, Manchester City, and Aston Villa most recently…”
Tom: “A+++ for getting Joy Division into the Sunday MBM.”
Emi Martinez had this to say on his move: “‘I’m delighted to be at this football club. Coming to Chelsea, for me and my family, was an easy decision to make and I’m just over the moon – I can’t wait to get started.
‘I want to be successful here. I’m someone who wants to win at everything I do and I want to bring that here to this football club because it’s a football club that wins titles, so I think it’s a good match.”
Confirmed: Martinez starts
Chelsea v Brighton teams
Chelsea: Martinez, Wesley Fofana, Lacroix, Colwill, Gusto, Palmer, Lavia, Hato, Pedro Neto, Rogers, Joao Pedro. Subs: Bynoe-Gittens, Welbeck, James, Caicedo, Chavarria, Acheampong, Estevao, Penders, Barco.
Brighton: Verbruggen, Wieffer, Vuskovic, Dunk, Boscagli, Gross, Kadioglu, Gomez, Yalcouye, De Cuyper, Kostoulas. Subs: Steele, Struijk, Hadjam, David, Osman, Costinha, Cozier-Duberry, O’Riley, Oriola.
Leeds v Brentford teams
Leeds United: Trafford, Bogle, Justin, Muharemovic, Rodon, Bijol, Ampadu, Stach, Okafor, Aaronson, Calvert-Lewin. Subs: Cairns, Gudmundsson, Elvedi, Longstaff, Tanaka, Gnoto, James, Wilson, Nmecha
Brentford: Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer, Collins, Lewis-Potter; Sangare, Janelt, Damsgaard, Anthony, Thiago Schade. Subs: Valdimarsson, Schuster, Hickey, Henry, Yarmoliuk, Ouattara, Wilson, Carvalho, Diouf
Sunderland v Fulham teams
Sunderland: Roefs, Mandava, Mukiele, Ballard, Meunier, Xhaka, Sadiki, Angulo, Le Fee, Hume, Brobbey. Subs: Ellborg, Alderete, O’Nien, Diarra, Mundle, Rigg, Talbi, Isidor, Ahoka.
Fulham: Leno, Robinson, Andersen, Bassey, Castagne, Iwobi, Berge, Palacios, King, Bobb, Garcia. Subs: Lecomte, Cuenca, Reed, Zepa, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe, Charles, Kevin, Muniz.
The word is that Emi Martinez will start for Chelsea. Full team news to follow soon…
Chelsea have a new goalkeeper. Where will Robert Sanchez end up? He was, as is customary for Chelsea, previously at Brighton.
On a similar tip, Andrew Beesley has run the numbers.
Vítor Pereira, Graham Potter and Thomas Frank became managers of Wolves, West Ham and Tottenham respectively in 2025, started last season in those roles and yet were removed by mid-February of this year at the latest. Across the preceding decade, 25 men who started a season as a new manager, appointed in that year, did not see out the season in question.
Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders. Regis Le Bris is the oldest manager on duty for the 2pm kick-offs.
It turns out it is true. Managers used to be ashen-faced men with nicotine-grey hair dressed in the sports jackets of grim experience. They spoke with a rasping melancholy of the depths of human fallibility and of fates that were not to be trusted. Now they’re trim, sprightly figures in T-shirts, convinced that analytics can explain the world.
Preamble
Three matches in the 2pm Super Sunday slot, and plenty to go at. Chelsea take on Brighton, the club they keep taking personnel from, who smashed Aston Villa last week. Brentford, who smashed Tottenham last week, travel to Leeds, who beat Nottingham Forest not once in the opening week of the season. Sunderland, whose fans are getting very excited about their European tour, take on the new-look Fulham.
All kick off at 2pm BST. Join me.
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