Brighton vs Chelsea, Friendly: Open Thread

It’s not often that I get to use the words Brighton And Hove Albion in a sentence, but today is one of those lucky days. Brighton And Hove Albion (or Brighton, as they’re more commonly named) host a friendly today against Chelsea. For viewers in the United States, the match will be shown live on, gulp, GolTV at 10am ET.

The match between Brighton and Chelsea will be played at the beautiful and relatively new home of Brighton FC — at The AMEX. Brighton, who play in the nPower Championship, are managed by former Chelsea footballer Gus Poyet. The Seagulls will be hoping for an entertaining match, I’m sure.

According to the Chelsea club website, one cause of concern for manager Roberto Di Matteo is the continued absence of five players from his squad on Olympic duty. He concedes the group still feels incomplete without Ryan Bertrand, Daniel Sturridge, Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu and new signing Oscar, but has news on the Spanish pair who were eliminated this week.

“They will be back training with us on Tuesday and straight into the mix. Then we will work out a plan for the two boys, especially Juan Mata who hasn’t had any holidays,’ Di Matteo said. ‘But, the squad won’t feel complete as we still have three guys at the Olympics, including Oscar, so I don’t think until everybody is here and we can work with all the guys that it will feel complete.”

By now, you know the drill. Before, during and after today’s game, post your rants, raves, questions and observations in the comments section below.