Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi has acknowledged that he has "big respect" for Chelsea and their manager Mauricio Pochettino ahead of Wednesday's EFL Cup third-round clash at Stamford Bridge.
While the Seagulls are flying high in third place in the Premier League after winning five of their opening six games, the West Londoners sit 10 points further back in 14th following a disappointing start to the new campaign, winning just one of their first six top-flight matches.
Pochettino oversaw widespread changes to the first-team squad under the ownership of Todd Boehly during the summer transfer window, but Chelsea are yet to find their groove under the Argentine, with injuries and the absence of a clinical goalscorer among the main factors behind their slow start in 2023-24.
Like Pochettino, De Zerbi experienced a tricky start to life in the Premier League with Brighton and picked up as many points (five) as the Argentine at Chelsea in his first six league games with the Seagulls.
However, Brighton have since come on leaps and bounds under the Italian, despite the sale of a few key players along the way, and are currently juggling domestic duties with European football for the first time in their history.
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Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's trip to West London, De Zerbi believes Chelsea that "deserve" more points having watched some of their games this season and feels they have a "great" squad and manager that are capable of turning the club's fortunes around.
"It is difficult to answer a question about another team. I don't know the situation," said De Zerbi. "I think they deserve more points on the table after watching the games, I've watched many of their games.
"I have big respect for Pochettino and the players of Chelsea. They have a great squad, but I don't know the problems they have.
"For us, it will be a very tough game, but we have to think of ourselves, to organise the first 11, to play better than the last game and to have a clearer idea, because the first half (against Bournemouth) wasn't very clear."
De Zerbi has also spoken about his excitement to meet former Brighton trio Moises Caicedo, Roberto Sanchez and Levi Colwill on Wednesday – the former two were sold to Chelsea this summer while the latter spent last season on loan with the Seagulls.
"Yes, I'm always happy to meet my former players," the Italian added. "Now they don't play with me, with us, but I will hug them all with pleasure."
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Amidst a busy fixture schedule across four competitions, De Zerbi has insisted that his Brighton side will take the EFL Cup "seriously" and will endeavour to beat Chelsea in their quest to progress to the fourth round.
"We try to respect (the EFL Cup) for our club, for our fans, for ourselves," said the Brighton boss. "We want to respect the football and the people who attend the stadium tomorrow evening, and to do that we have to play seriously, we have to give our best and we have to prepare the game like in the Premier League and Europa League.
"We have to get used to playing three games each week, and we have to push tomorrow like next Saturday against [Aston] Villa, then in the Europa League and then Liverpool."
"[It is too early] to speak about winning the competition," the Italian added. "For sure we want to play more games in this competition, in the Europa League and Premier League as well.
"The mentality of the team can't decide which games we have to play seriously and which you can play not at your best. When we wear the official shirt, we have to push and I only know this way."
Brighton, who will be without Pascal Gross and James Milner due to injury, claimed a 2-1 victory against Chelsea in their last visit to Stamford Bridge in April, while De Zerbi picked up his first win as Seagulls head coach against the Blues on home soil, winning 4-1 back in October last year.
Oliver Thomas
