Albion defender Joel Veltman believes they are facing a crucial period of the season in the coming two weeks. Saturday’s home game against Chelsea is the first of four fixtures, before a six-week break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. And they go into this weekend’s meeting with former boss Graham Potter at the Amex sitting in ninth place in the Premier League.
Joel Veltman said: “We are looking forward to the rest of the games before the World Cup. We need to focus on Chelsea first. We know there will be a lot of noise around Saturday but Wolves, Aston Villa and Arsenal in the League Cup are just as important.”
Albion are still to celebrate a win under new head coach Roberto De Zerbi, whose first full month in charge has included games with Liverpool, Tottenham and defending champions Manchester City. But Veltman, 30, feels the wins will soon come as players get more used to the Italian’s style of playing, having produced arguably their best performance of the season in a 3-1 loss at the Etihad last weekend.
Joel Veltman added: “There is still things to work on, but we are making progress all the time and we will get there. Last Saturday we could have done more in ball possession, which is one of our strengths, but against one of the best sides in Europe we showed a lot of courage to play through their lines and we created chances. We did well out of possession, were compact and created chances.”
Erling Haaland struck twice in the first half to put Pep Guardiola’s side on top, taking his tally to 17 in 11 games. But Leandro Trossard hit back with a superb effort early in the second half, taking his tally for the season to six, including four goals managed by the team under De Zerbi. And Dutchman Veltman praised his Belgian clubmate,
Joel Veltaman said: “He is so confident at the moment and he is scoring out of nowhere like shots from outside the box which is one of his strengths. But a lot of our players are in good form.”
Chelsea will arrive at the Amex unbeaten in nine matches under ex-Albion boss Potter, having booked a place in the last 16 of the Champions League in midweek. The past three Premier League meetings between the two clubs have ended in draws, but Brighton have yet to beat the Blues in 10 league matches and have not led their rivals in any of those fixtures.
