Roberto De Zerbi explains ‘difficult’ Joao Pedro decision after £30m Brighton transfer

Brighton's £30m summer signing Joao Pedro impressed on his debut against Chelsea

The £30m record summer arrival from Watford was on the bench in Philadelphia as 10-man Brighton went down 4-3 to Chelsea in an entertaining opener to the Premier League Summer Series on Saturday night.

Pedro, 21, made a telling impact when introduced in the second half as the Brazilian displayed skill, power and a determination to run at the Chelsea defence and cause plenty of problems.

Pedro earned and scored from the penalty spot and also set up Deniz Undav for Albion’s well taken third.

The new arrival has made a favourable first impression but the Albion head coach admits he has some tough decisions to make as Pedro will compete for minutes alongside the talents of Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck, Evan Ferguson, Julio Enciso, Simon Adingra and Facundo Buonanotte.

“Pedro is a great, great player,” De Zerbi said speaking after the loss to Chelsea. “But we have a lot of great players in attack. The difficulty is to decide the first XI. A good problem but it is better in this case.”

Experienced campaigner Adam Lallana – who played his first match since January after injury – was also impressed with Pedro, along with Mo Dahoud, Jack Hinshelwood and Undav.

“I thought we showed lots of good stuff and it was a first game for Mo in the middle of the park,” Lallana said. “Jack Hinshelwood was very good – you’re going to see a lot of him, he’s a very good young player. Joao Pedro and Deniz Undav were very good in the second half.

“We went down to ten men in the second half and had to show a bit of resilience. It’s always nice when you show that, it’s engrained in our blood and we need to show that throughout the year.”