In a frantic and pulsating contest at Stamford Bridge, Cole Palmer scored four first-half goals to help Chelsea beat Brighton and climb into the Champions League spots.
Brighton broke the deadlock within eight minutes but Palmer then scored three goals in ten minutes to delight the home crowd and put Chelsea in control.
The visitors got a goal back before Palmer added his and Chelsea’s fourth just before the interval, becoming the first player in Premier League history to score four first-half goals.
The victory was Chelsea’s sixth in eight games and sent Enzo Maresca’s side into the top-four places for the first time this season.
Chelsea were widely tipped to struggle in Maresca’s first season at the club following another chaotic transfer window in which several players arrived and left Stamford Bridge.
The early signs have been promising but Chelsea were still labelled ‘a joke’ for the way they defended at the weekend against a Brighton team which employed bold, verging on naive, tactics.
Analysing the Premier League thriller on ESPN, former Liverpool and Scotland defender Steve Nicol said: ‘If you like entertainment, chances, mistakes and all the things that go along with it, then you can go and watch Chelsea and Brighton.
‘If you like proper football, that was a joke. Those two teams were an absolute embarrassment defensively.’
Chelsea boss Maresca, meanwhile, admitted his team ‘struggled in some moments’ against Brighton but was pleased with the victory.
‘It was a good game. Probably we struggled in some moments of the game but I think this kind of game the team needed also to learn,’ said the Italian, who took Leicester City back into the Premier League.
‘I prefer to have more possession! But we struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game, we conceded possession because they surprised us a bit tactically, but overall we were quite good.’
On four-goal hero Palmer, Maresca added: ‘I know Cole Palmer from many years ago, I had him at Manchester City in the under-23s.
‘The best thing is the way he is as a human is the same way. This doesn’t change his life and that is the best thing for him.
‘You’d have to be blind if you didn’t see those kind of things with Cole. I said that he scored four but he could have scored more, I say always to be ambitious and hungry to score more.’
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