Founded in 1901, Brighton & Hove Albion spent 95 years at the Goldstone Stadium in Hove. They then spent 2 years 70 miles away at Priestfield Stadium, where Gillingham played. It was at the turn of the millennium that they returned to Brighton and converted an athletic track into a stadium. Ten years later, in 2009, lifelong fan Tony 'The Lizard' Bloom took over as Chairman.
On paper, Bloom is a Gambler, a professional poker player. He gambled with Brighton, and he is winning. The first was to get the club their own stadium, which he did with them moving to the Falmer Stadium in 2011. After going through some interesting managers, Chris Hughton took them up to the Premier League in 2017, the only other spell a 4 year one in the First Division from 1979-1983.
Hughton narrowly survived relegation in his second term there and was sacked in 2019. He was replaced by a certain Graham Potter and Brighton's moment in the sun, plus our 'Friends with Benefits' relationship, starts here.
Overall Record : W9 D4 L3
Key Statistics
Most goals by a Chelsea Player (Palmer 4, =1st)
Most goals by a Chelsea Player in one Half (Palmer 4, 1st)
When the Seagulls came up, we found them easy fodder. We won our first 5 games, doing the double over them in 2017-18 & 2018-19. Away at the Amex, Willian scored this tremendous goal in a 4-0 win.
Willian vs Brighton - January 2018pic.twitter.com/bKjixE7WNR
— Gvido (@cfc_gvido) September 13, 2024
In the last of those wins, Willian would score again as Chelsea triumphed 2-0 at home, despite creating 3.7 xG. The other goal being a penalty from Jorginho.
A few draws followed under Tuchel and Lampard before Chelsea's new owners decided to gamble on Graham Potter to step up from the fantastic job he was doing in East Sussex and lead us now on our rebuild. Early on into that, his old club beat us 4-1 at the Amex. Julius Enciso's fantastic winner in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge meant Potter's old club would do the double over his new one.
He's now gone, but we've struggled against them since, despite taking their best players as you will read ahead.
They Played for Both
In the last 5 years, there are a host of players crossing over to the Blues from the Seagulls. Two of our best players, arguably World Class operators who could start for any club in football, have come for eye watering fees.
Cucurella moved for a record transfer for a wing-back, while Caicedo moved for the overall Premier League Record, memorably rejecting a Premier League record offer from Liverpool (the Coutinho money of course) and making his mum happy.
Joao Pedro and Robert Sanchez have become World Champions, despite the latter not always inspiring confidence in our defence. Tariq Lamptey & Billy Gilmour joined Brighton and had decent seasons, the latter now in Napoli. Levi Colwill had a fantastic year on loan at Brighton before returning to become our number one defender.
But what about the past? Any links? Wayne Bridge spent 6 years at Chelsea from 2003-2009. Later as a Manchester City player he would have a season on loan an Brighton who almost reached the Premier League through the playoffs. He did not sign permanently and retired within a year.
A big shout out should go to Fran Kirby! Our record goal scorer and one of the best players in Women's football for years, Kirby joined Brighton last year after flying the Chelsea Flag proudly for almost a decade.
