For half an hour it looked like a procession. By the time João Pedro slid home Chelsea's third at Stamford Bridge, the only question seemed to be how many. Yet football rarely reads the script through to the final page, and Chelsea were made to sweat for a 4-3 win that flattered nobody and terrified everybody in blue.

This was a match that swung on its own arrogance. Three goals to the good and cruising, Chelsea eased off the throttle and invited Brighton & Hove Albion back into a contest that should long have been beyond them. The visitors accepted the invitation with relish, and only Cole Palmer's cool finish and six added minutes of frantic defending kept the points at home.

In the end it was a third straight win for Chelsea, who move to six points and third in the Premier League with a maximum return that hides the flaws exposed here. Brighton left with nothing but the knowledge that they had frightened the life out of their hosts.

Blitz and bluster

Chelsea began like a side possessed. Inside four minutes Roméo Lavia stabbed home from close range after a corner, his right-footed finish nestling into the bottom-left corner before Brighton had drawn breath. It was the perfect start and it set the tone for a devastating opening act.

Ten minutes later the lead was doubled. Morgan Rogers threaded the ball to Pedro Neto, who steered a right-footed shot from the centre of the box straight down the throat of the goal. Stamford Bridge purred; Brighton reeled. The home side were moving with a swagger that suggested they might tear their visitors apart entirely.

And on 32 minutes they nearly did. A fast break was finished with clinical intent, Jorrel Hato supplying João Pedro to fire low into the bottom-left corner for 3-0. Three goals, three different scorers, half an hour gone. It was as commanding an opening as any side could wish for, and it should have been the platform for a rout.

The tide turns

Instead it became the high-water mark. Three minutes after the third goal, Malick Yalcouyé arrowed a right-footed strike into the top-left corner from the centre of the box, and suddenly Brighton had a lifeline they had scarcely earned. It was a fine finish, and it changed the temperature of the afternoon just before the interval.

The second half brought the kind of chaos that turns comfortable wins into ordeals. On 63 minutes João Pedro, so decisive at one end, turned villain at the other, diverting the ball into his own net to make it 3-2. The scorer of Chelsea's third had now halved his own side's advantage, and the nerves rippling around Stamford Bridge were unmistakable.

What had been a party became a siege. Brighton, sensing blood, pressed for an equaliser that would have been unthinkable an hour earlier. Chelsea, for all their early brilliance, looked a side unsure whether to attack or defend, and that indecision very nearly cost them everything.

Palmer's poise

It took a moment of individual class to steady the ship. On 74 minutes João Pedro atoned for his own goal by releasing Cole Palmer, who took aim from outside the box and curled a left-footed shot into the bottom-left corner. It was a goal of composure amid the panic, and it restored the two-goal cushion that Chelsea had so carelessly frittered away.

Even that, though, was not enough to settle matters. Deep into six minutes of stoppage time, Pascal Groß rose to head home from the centre of the box, the ball dropping into the bottom-left corner and setting up a grandstand finale nobody in blue wanted. Brighton hurled bodies forward in search of a fourth that would have completed one of the great comebacks.

It never came. Chelsea held firm through the final, fraught seconds, and the whistle was greeted with as much relief as celebration. Palmer's strike, ultimately, was the difference between a memorable victory and a humiliating collapse.

What it means

For Chelsea, this is two wins from two and a perfect start to the Premier League campaign, third in the table with seven scored and five conceded. The attacking numbers speak of a side brimming with threat; the defensive column tells its own cautionary tale. Winning while playing badly is the mark of good teams, but conceding three at home after leading by three will not go unnoticed.

For Brighton & Hove Albion, the frustration will linger. Eighth on three points, with seven goals scored across their opening two matches, they have shown they can hurt anybody. To come from three down at Stamford Bridge and still leave empty-handed is the sort of afternoon that either galvanises a season or haunts it.

The bare result flatters Chelsea and does Brighton few favours, yet the table cares only for points. Chelsea have six of them and a swagger that, on this evidence, needs tempering with steel. Brighton have the attacking verve to trouble the division and a defensive fragility of their own that gifted the game away inside half an hour.

Both sides will have learned plenty from a breathless afternoon in west London. Chelsea march on with their perfect record intact, however precariously it was preserved. Brighton must dust themselves down quickly, because a performance this spirited deserved more than a scoreline this cruel.