Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s spectacular overhead kick earned Brighton a share of the points against Chelsea and dampened Frank Lampard’s New Year celebrations on Wednesday even as Aston Villa secured a vital win against Burnley.
Kicking off a packed day of top-flight action, Chelsea’s 1-1 draw on England’s south coast meant it missed out on the chance to pull seven points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United in the race to secure Champions League football for next season.
Cesar Azpilicueta gave the visitors an early lead, tapping in from close range following a corner in the 10th minute but Brighton was never out of it and pulled level in the 84th minute courtesy of Jahanbakhsh’s moment of magic.
Chelsea was quickly on top from the start of the match but Brighton came into the contest as it wore on, enjoying a spell of possession towards the end of the first half.
Leandro Trossard tested Kepa Arrizabalaga with a powerful strike but the Chelsea goalkeeper parried the shot with his right hand.
Lampard’s team was again dominant after the break. Christian Pulisic came close to doubling Chelsea’s lead at Brighton after 55 minutes while N’Golo Kante and Reece James were denied.
But Brighton kept battling and Kepa was forced to produce an outstanding save from Aaron Connolly in the 80th minute as the home side pushed for an equaliser.
Persistence pays
Its persistence paid off minutes later. Lewis Dunk kept the ball alive from a corner-kick and Iranian midfielder Jahanbakhsh acrobatically found the bottom-left corner to give his team share of the points.
In the other early kick-off, Villa beat Burnley 2-1 despite seeing Jack Grealish’s opening goal controversially chalked off by VAR.
Wesley put Villa ahead in the 27th minute and captain Grealish doubled his side’s advantage four minutes before the break as his powerful effort found the top corner.
Chris Wood pulled a goal back for Burnley with 10 minutes to go.
For struggling Aston Villa it was its second away win of the Premier League season — its first league win at Turf Moor since 1936.
VAR intervention
Villa thought it had taken an 11th minute lead through a diving header from Grealish but a VAR review found that Wesley’s heel was marginally offside during the move and the goal was over-turned.
It was Wesley who did open the scoring though — the impressive Grealish finding him in the box and the Brazilian swivelled and fired past Nick Pope to give Villa a deserved lead.
Burnley was unusually sloppy in defence and it was no shock when Grealish doubled Villa’s lead, finishing off a lovely passing move with a confident curling finish.
The results: Brighton 1 (Jahanbakhsh 84) drew with Chelsea 1 (Azpilicueta 10); Burnley 1 (Wood 80) lost to Aston Villa 2 (Wesley 27, Grealish 41).
