Albion take on Chelsea in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge, kick-off 7.45pm.
Team news
Roberto De Zerbi said in his press conference on Tuesday, "Pascal [Gross] and James Milner will miss this one. I have not decided about Evan [Ferguson] yet, I would like him to play at his best. He wasn’t in his best physical condition on Sunday but he wanted to play, but we need the best condition of the players if we want to compete every three days. We have to change the 11 and take the best decisions game-by-game."
Our last meeting
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Albion enjoyed back-to-back league victories over the Blues last season, cruising to a 4-1 victory at The Amex, before heading to Stamford Bridge in April where Julio Enciso scored an outrageous long-ranged effort in a 2-1 win.
Stats
This is the first ever League Cup meeting between Chelsea and Brighton, and first in any cup competition since a 2-0 win for the Blues in the 1972/73 FA Cup.
Brighton have won their last two meetings with Chelsea in all competitions (both in the Premier League last season), having won just one of their first 18 against the Blues (D5 L12).
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Chelsea lost 2-0 to Manchester City in the League Cup third round last season, but haven't gone out at this stage of the competition in consecutive campaigns since 1999-00/2000-01.
Albion are unbeaten in their last seven League Cup away games (W5 D2), though their two draws in that run have resulted in penalty shootout defeats (v Leicester in 2021/22 and Charlton last season).
Match officials
Referee - Thomas Bramall
Assistant Referee 1 - Constantine Hatzidakis
Assistant Referee 2 - Craig Taylor
Fourth Official - Oliver Langford
Observer - Graham Horwood