Christopher Nkunku will have his chance to be Chelsea’s leading man in their Premier League clash at Brighton, with Nicolas Jackson ruled out until April.
The Blues are set to be without their first choice striker for the next six weeks due to a hamstring injury suffered in the win over West Ham at the start of the month.
With Marc Guiu also ruled out, Nkunku will hope to get his chance in the weeks to come despite murmurings he wanted to leave the club in January.
The Frenchman produced an underwhelming performance as Chelsea crashed out of the FA Cup to the Seagulls in their last match on Saturday.
Enzo Maresca’s side face Brighton for the second game in a row tonight, this time in the top-flight, looking to get revenge over the south coast club.
Reece James is available for the showdown at the Amex after he was rested for the FA Cup meeting.
Maresca also revealed that Filip Jorgensen will start in goal instead of Robert Sanchez, having made the former his No.1 goalkeeper.
Chelsea are still missing Romeo Lavia, Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile with the trio still a few weeks away while Mykhailo Mudryk is provisionally suspended.
Brighton, meanwhile, are also dealing with a number of injury problems with head coach Fabian Hurzeler confirming that the Premier League clash against Chelsea will come too soon for Solly March.
Pervis Estupinan is ruled out while Lewis Dunk is a ‘doubt’ after suffering an injury to his ribs in the FA Cup triumph over Chelsea.
Adam Webster and Tariq Lamptey are likely to be named in the Brighton XI instead of Dunk and Estupinan respectively.
Mats Wieffer could be an option for the bench for Brighton, with the midfielder having stepped up his recovery from injury.
Brighton are aiming to get back to winning ways in the top-flight after a humiliating 7-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in their last Premier League game.
Chelsea are hoping to win back-to-back Premier League games, defeating West Ham 2-1 in their most recent top-flight fixture.
The Blues are fourth in the Premier League table heading into the match against Brighton – and although there are unable to leapfrog third-placed Forest with a win – they are hoping to extend their two-point lead over Manchester City and Newcastle United, who currently sit fifth and sixth.
Predicted Chelsea XI to face Brighton
Jorgensen, James, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Nkunku
Predicted Brighton XI to face Chelsea
Verbruggen, Veltman, Van Hecke, Webster, Lamptey, Baleba, Gomez, Minteh, Rutter, Mitoma, Pedro
Brighton vs Chelsea prediction
Opta’s Supercomputer is backing Chelsea to defeat Brighton, with the Blues emerging victorious in 41.1 per cent of their simulations.
The Seagulls, though, are unbeaten in their last three top-flight home games against teams starting the day in the top four – and will be full of confidence having just knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup.
It is likely to be a close-fought match, with a narrow victory for Chelsea seeming to be the most probable outcome.
Metro’s prediction: Brighton 1-2 Chelsea
Where to watch Brighton vs Chelsea? Kick-off time and TV channel
Brighton vs Chelsea kicks off at 8pm on Friday, February 14.
The Valentine’s Day clash will be shown live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event, with a live stream available on the Sky Go app and NOW TV.
