Our Academy teams have made a number of trips to the south in the opening weeks of the season and here we preview the action and hear the thoughts of midfielder Jon Russell ahead of kick-off.

How to watch and follow

Single camera coverage of the game will be provided live and free on the 5th Stand app and on this website. We will have team news and updates via the official Chelsea twitter and have a full match report on this website following full-time.

Form

Andy Myers’ team have started the season strongly, backing-up an opening day win over West Ham with an impressive display over Southampton last Friday. Dion Rankine got our season’s scoring started at Kingsmeadow against the Hammers while Russell, Thierno Ballo and Myles Peart-Harris all opened their league tally.

The opposition

Brighton have drawn both of their games thus far, first forcing Tottenham into a quick reply to Teddy Jenks’ 15 minute opener. The game ended 1-1. After taking the lead through Jenks against Arsenal last week, a Gunners double put Brighton behind shortly after an hour. Danny Cashman’s 72nd-minute strike secured another point for our hosts.

From the dressing room

Russell netted after two minutes at Southampton and admits it’s an area of his game he has been working on, while putting the development squad’s winning start down to the attitude of the team during an unusual pre-season.

‘I’ve been working on it for a while – I’m always trying to score goals and get in the box,’ he told the Chelsea website. ‘I know I’ve got the ability to score, I’ve just got to be smart in my running and decision making in and around the box. I enjoy practising how to best execute the different types of circumstances I might find myself in as my aim is to score in every game.

‘We’ve had a very good start and that’s due to our work ethic thorough pre-season, we continued working hard and getting minutes under the belt when possible. As individuals we put our all into our preparations and early games and the results are proof of that.’

Brighton have drawn their opening two games after ending last season strongly. At the time of curtailment they sat third in PL2 and had been in good form.

Nineteen-year-old Russell believes Chelsea are feeling good after our first two games.

‘We have prepared for tonight’s game well and at the moment we’ve got the confidence of two wins behind us tonight,’ he said. ‘That coupled with a good performance should deliver a positive result for us.'