GOAL OF THE DECADE!*
Brighton winger’s moment of magic
FOR THE second successive game, Alireza Jahanbakhsh was left in almost stunned disbelief, this time after scoring what could be the goal of the decade, for a few weeks at least.
For Frank Lampard and Chelsea it was an all too familiar feeling of frustration as their attempts to build momentum were checked once more.
Arriving on the back of their rousing late comeback against Arsenal, Chelsea led after just 10 minutes, dominated the rest of the first half and kept Brighton at arm’s length for most of the second. Their failure to grab a second goal proved costly, though, and left the door open for Jahanbakhsh’s jaw-dropping late heroics, a sensational overhead kick to cancel out Cesar Azpilicueta’s opener.
Chelsea have not won successive league games since November and their recent run has underlined some of the inconsistencies that can come with youth.
‘We’ve got work to do,’ a frustrated and angry Lampard admitted. ‘The Christmas period has probably been a small showing of our season. Tottenham was a fantastic all- round performance. Arsenal showed great spirit and fight for a young group. Southampton, we struggled to break a team down and lost at home. Then today we should have the mindset to kill it, because the opportunity was there in the first half, and we don’t. It shows the good and the bad of us.
‘That shows we must remain humble. We must work hard. We’ve had two great results over Christmas but there’s a lot of work to do. It was an incredible equaliser but I think we deserved it because it is two points dropped. In the first half, if we’re ruthless the game is out of sight.’
Their failure to put Brighton away when they had the chance was punished in stunning style by Jahanbakhsh.
The Iranian winger arrived in the summer of 2018 as a £17million club record signing having just won the golden boot in Holland with AZ Alkmaar.
To say he had failed to live up to his price tag would be an understatement. His first 26 appearances produced a grand total of zero goals and sparked talk he would be loaned out this month to kickstart his career.
But Jahanbakhsh broke his duck against Bournemouth on Saturday, a moment that reduced him to tears, then topped that against Chelsea.
Brighton boss Graham Potter, who started Jahanbakhsh on the bench, said: ‘He put so much into the Bournemouth game I didn’t think it was the right way to use him (starting again) but rather at the back end of the game.
‘So far that’s the goal of the decade, yeah. I didn’t predict that quality of strike but I’m really pleased for him. He’s had a good week.’
The new year started perfectly for Chelsea when Azpilicueta scored the first Premier League goal of 2020, following up
after Tammy Abraham’s shot was blocked on the line by Aaron Mooy.
Potter’s first change, introducing the livewire Aaron Connolly at half-time, gave Brighton a more direct threat. With 10 minutes left Kepa Arrizabalaga produced a sprawling close-range save to deny Connolly an equaliser.
But four minutes later Jahanbakhsh met Lewis Dunk’s header with an overhead kick that flew past the rooted Kepa.
One sour note for Potter was a fractured collar bone injury for Dan Burn which will keep him sidelined for up to eight weeks.
BRIGHTON (4-2-3-1): Ryan 6; Montoya 6, Webster 7, Dunk 7, Burn 6 (Bernardo 22min, 7); Propper 5, Bissouma 5 (Connolly 46, 7); Alzate 6.5, Mooy 7 (Jahanbakhsh 67, 8), Trossard 6; Maupay 6.5. Subs not used: Duffy, Stephens, Gross, Button. Scorer: Jahanbakhsh 84. Booked: Dunk, Maupay.
Manager: Graham Potter 8. CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): ARRIZABALAGA 8; James 7, Rudiger 7, Zouma 7, Azpilicueta 7.5; Kante 7.5, Jorginho 7; Willian 6, Mount 6.5 (Kovacic 73, 6), Pulisic 6 (Hudson-Odoi 66, 6.5), Abraham 7.
Subs not used: Christensen, Caballero, Batshuayi, Emerson Palmieri, Lamptey. Scorer: Azpilicueta 10. Booked: Zouma, Kovacic, James.
Manager: Frank Lampard 7. Referee: Stuart Attwell 6.
Attendance: 30,559.