The Blues came into this match looking to bounce back from an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at the hands of Brighton in the FA Cup just six days prior. Chelsea took an early lead in that occasion only to see the Seagulls bounce back and finish them off with two late goals.
This time around, Brighton put Chelsea to the sword early and the humiliation continued all throughout the match. The evening started with Chelsea looking like the brighter side but an early injury for Noni Madueke was an ominous sign for the Blues on the evening.
Just six minutes later, Brighton took the lead through an incredible goal by Kaoru Mitoma. Brighton keeper Bart Verbuggen hoofed the ball up the field and the Japanese winger took a brilliant touch to bring the ball down before making Trevoh Chalobah and Filip Jorgensen look foolish with a deft finish. It was a world class goal from the same player that sealed the defeat in the FA Cup earlier in the week.
Brighton were off and running from there and 11 minutes later doubled their lead through 20-year-old Yankuba Minteh. Just before that however the Blues had the goal in the back of the net thanks to an Enzo header but it was waved off due to an incredibly soft "foul" by Fernandez. There was a goal mouth scramble after a driven cross from the left wing and after a bit of chaos, Danny Welbeck found his young teammate and the Gambian slotted it home.
The Blues would go into halftime looking for answers after being run off the pitch but no changes would be made and things would swiftly get worse. Chelsea once again dominated the first 15 minutes of the half but couldn’t punish Brighton and were instead punched in the mouth with a knockout blow.
Minteh would do the honors once again as he danced through the Chelsea defense, leaving Marc Cucurella lunging for air and a wicked deflection took his powerful shot past Jorgensen. It was poor defending from start to finish and a frankly inexcusable goal to concede at that point in the match. The rest of the match petered out with little to offer from Chelsea and Brighton content to let the minutes tick down to fulltime.
This was yet another poor performance by the Blues and their third loss in all competitions in the last four matches. It was so poor in fact that they didn’t register a shot on target for all 90 minutes. There was hope that the comeback against West Ham would spark a run of good form but the opposite has happened as a malaise has settled over the squad. A mix of injuries, bad vibes, and strange transfer decisions during the January window have left the Blues searching for answers and struggling to find them.
Things don’t get any easier as the Blues travel to Aston Villa next Saturday as the Villans make their own push for European football. This loss leaves Chelsea two points clear of Manchester City and Newcastle United who face each other this weekend and three points clear of Bournemouth who face lowly Southampton.
If things go poorly the Blues could see themselves slide back down to sixth and out of the proper European places. Chelsea and Enzo Maresca need to get back to winning ways and do so quickly or things could spiral before we even hit spring. If they continue to play like they did against Brighton then that is the far more likely scenario.