Chelsea 1 Albion 0

Albion’s season on four fronts is now a three-pronged attack after a narrow defeat in West London last night.

Nicolas Jackson rolled home the only goal of a competitive, if scrappy at times, third round tie in the Carabao Cup.

It will have been a valuable experience in West London for several of Roberto De Zerbi’s much-changed side.

But ultimately it was a frustrating one as Chelsea gave their own stuttering campaign something of a lift.

Carlos Baleba was handed his first Albion start.

It came alongside Mahmoud Dahoud in midfield, as De Zerbi had indicated would be the case in his press conference on Tuesday.

Jan Paul van Hecke and Igor Julio, who had an up-and-down night in partnership at home to AEK last week, were in central defence with Lewis Dunk among the subs.

Evan Ferguson was not involved as the Seagulls take care of him after recent illness.

Chelsea named four former Albion players in their XI.

Robert Sanchez, Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella and former loanee Levi Colwill were all in their side - and were enthusiastically booed by the noisy away section.

Mykhailo Mudryk, wide on the Chelsea left, offered the first threat as he cut inside and got in a shot which Bart Verbruggen held at the second attempt.

Then Kaoru Mitoma eased outside Cucurella, who was at right-back, but the low cross came to nothing.

There was some great covering by Igor after Mudryk got away from Tariq Lamptey, was then too quick for Baleba and looked to send Jackson through on goal.

Albion were getting into some decent situations with no end product of note.

Dahoud dragged a 25-yard shot well wide at the end of their best move to date just past the 20-minute mark.

But then they were handed a glorious chance.

Sanchez passed the ball straight to Joao Pedro, who had time to measure his chip but floated the ball on to the roof of the net.

The nervy Sanchez then saved from Ansu Fati after the keeper’s kamikaze short pass had again put his side in trouble.

Chelsea and their fans were on edge but Albion would have wanted to create more danger of their own.

Instead, Lamptey had to make a great sliding challenge on Mudryk after good work by Caicedo to unlock the defence.

Cole Palmer poked a chance wide at the near post right on half-time.

But the main talking point as the teams headed for the changing rooms was an unpunished lunge on Baleba’s ankle by Chimuanya Ugochukwu, who had only just been booked for fouling Mitoma.

Baleba and Pervis Estupinan were also booked in the first half, the former for a block on Caicedo away from the ball and the latter seemingly for his reaction to the foul on Mitoma.

Solly March had replaced Ansu as the second half kicked off, with Facundo Buonanotte taking a more central role.

Albion forced a corner and made quite a bright start to the half playing towards the packed away end. But Chelsea went ahead on 51 minutes.

They worked it quite nicely, with simple passes from Ian Maatsen and Palmer, and Jackson was left in an explicable amount of room to roll a shot gently past the wrong-footed Verbruggen.

It really felt like a cup tie now.

It looked like Van Hecke would get on the end of a cross to the far post but, after a bit of a melee, the ball ended up with Sanchez.

Chelsea, on the counter, had a great chance as they got Jackson in behind Van Hecke, just to the left of goal.

But Verbruggen made a big barrier and saved with his left foot.

Baleba, who had been in the wars, went off at that point, replaced by Billy Gilmour - who got an ovation from home fans.

Also, Danny Welbeck went on for Mitoma with Raheem Sterling then replacing Mudryk for the hosts.

They were soon followed by Jack Hinshelwood coming on for Dahoud.

Albion could have forced a shoot-out late in the contest.

Sanchez kept the hosts in front when he parried a diving header by March, who was picked out beyond the far post by Estupinan.

As the tie moved into seven minutes of stoppage time, Estupinan got in behind the defence and drilled the ball agonisingly across the face of goal.

It looked like Sanchez got a foot to it, although the throw was given to Chelsea.

Then Joao Pedro sent a volley flying inches over when Lamptey’s cross was only half-cleared.

But the Seagulls were to draw a very rare blank - and with it their hopes in this competition ended.

Chelsea: Sanchez; Cucurella, Disasi, Colwill, Chilwell; Caicedo, Ugochukwu; Palmer (Fernandez 75), Maatsen (Gallagher 75), Mudryk (Sterling 68); Jackson (Broja 87). Unused subs: Petrovic, Brooking, Gilchrist, Matos, Washington.

Goal: Jackson 51.

Yellow card: Ugochukwu

Albion: Verbruggen; Lamptey, Van Hecke, Igor, Estupinan; Dahoud (Hinshelwood 70), Baleba (Gilmour 64); Buonanotte (Lallana 78), Ansu Fati (March 46), Mitoma (Welbeck 64); Joao Pedro. Unused subs: Steele, Dunk, Veltman, Adingra.

Yellow card: Baleba, Estupinan.

Referee: Thomas Bramall (VAR not in operation).