Chelsea held off a Brighton fightback to clinch a thrilling 4-3 victory and continue their winning start under manager Xabi Alonso.
The Blues raced into a three-goal lead through Romeo Lavia, Pedro Neto and former Brighton forward Joao Pedro in a scintillating opening period at Stamford Bridge but the visitors responded.
Malick Yalcoule slammed home before the break to give them hope and they reduced the deficit to one goal when a Pascal Gross shot deflected off Joao Pedro and beyond Emiliano Martinez, who was making his debut following his £7.5m arrival from Aston Villa.
Brighton had further chances, with Diego Gomez going close and Martinez making some fine stops, but Cole Palmer found the bottom corner in superb style for Chelsea’s fourth, meaning a Gross header in stoppage time was too little too late for the visitors.
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Chelsea were without Enzo Fernandez, who was left out of the squad for a second consecutive Premier League game amid interest from Manchester City, while Moises Caicedo had to come off injured soon after coming on for his first appearance of the season.
But the victory continues a positive start under Alonso. While the new Chelsea manager has issues to address defensively, their new-look attack proved too much for their opponent for the second game in a row following their 3-2 win over Fulham.
While Joao Pedro and Palmer were on target for a second consecutive, record signing Morgan Rogers added an assist to his goal against the Cottagers when he crossed for Neto’s strike.
