- Albion share the spoils in top-of-the-table clash with Chelsea
- Armando Broja gives Chelsea the lead
- Laurent Tolaj scores an equaliser for Albion
- Both teams sit joint top of the table alongside Fulham with 13 points
Albion’s under-18s continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre.
Both sides came into the game having won all of their opening four games of the season, and the result leaves the Seagulls and the Blues level on 13 points alongside Fulham.
The visitors created the first chance of the game when Joe Haigh delivered a corner into the far post towards Dynel Simeu, whose header hit the side netting.
The Seagulls worked their first opening after Jack Leahy met a ball into the box and saw his close-range strike pushed away by Blues goalkeeper Lucas Bergstrom.
The visitors took the lead two minutes into the second half as Valentino Livramento’s cross was cleared into the path of Armando Broja, who stretched to tap the ball past Adam Dubois from deep inside the area.
Chelsea’s lead was wiped out in the 70th minute when Tolaj met a hopeful ball into the box with a header that nestled into the corner beyond Bergstrom.
After losing the lead, the Blues also went down to ten men after Xavier Simons was shown a straight red card following a strong 50-50 challenge.
Tolaj came close to winning the game late on for Albion after the forward got behind the Chelsea defence on the counter-attack, but was thwarted by Bergstom at the last moment as the spoils were shared.
ALBION: Dubois; Tanimowo (Tolaj 51), Copping, Turns, Packham; Miller (Wilson 71), Tsoungi (Offiah 80), Leonard, Furlong; Leahy, Vukoje.
SUBS NOT USED: Bull (GK), Dackers.