This was a game of cat and mouse, high risk and high rewards from two managers wedded to their tactical approach.
Maresca’s team may have edged it tactically but the real difference maker was Palmer and his ruthless finishing.
The Italian manager said, after mistakes from Levi Colwill and Robert Sanchez led to goals after intelligent Brighton pressing, that his team didn’t have it all their own way.
“Probably we struggled in some moments of the game, but I think this kind of game the team needed also to learn,” Maresca said.
“I prefer to have more possession. But we struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game, we conceded possession because they surprised us a bit tactically, but overall we were quite good.”
In another remarkable summer at Stamford Bridge which saw £200m spent and the likes of Raheem Sterling and Conor Gallagher leave, perhaps the eyebrow-raising nine-year contracts handed to Palmer and Jackson may prove to be shrewd moves.
The early weeks of the season were full of talk of chaos behind the scenes, power struggles and stockpiling, but for all the talk of having too many players, Chelsea have started to look settled. Maresca has made nine changes to his starting XIs in the league this season, four fewer than Manchester City and Newcastle and one fewer than Brighton.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler’s approach is one that is riskier than perhaps even Chelsea’s – sticking to a very high defensive line. They camped on the halfway line at Stamford Bridge, regardless of whether Chelsea or they had the ball.
All four goals that Brighton shipped on Saturday, and the four conceded before, were similar as teams exploited that style of defending, which the German admits may force a change of approach.
Hurzeler said: “They had one amazing player [Palmer] that punished every mistake we did. We should learn about it. We can’t win if we make these easy mistakes, especially in the first half. We have to analyse it, improve and adapt if necessary.”