Brighton 3 Chelsea 0
Two teams that couldn’t be further away from each other at the minute. Their points might be similar but these teams are galaxies away from each other on the pitch at this moment, Brighton almost scored with their first attack as Gross floated a cross back-post where Mitoma almost recreated his goal from Saturday but Sanchez was able to tip it over the bar. From the resulting corner Hato’s defensive header was awful giving it straight to Kadioglu who’s shot deflected off Fofana past Sanchez to give Brighton the lead in the 3rd minute, from then Brighton absolutely battered Chelsea and really should have scored 3 or 4 in the first half as the only positive Chelsea could take in that first half was that it was only 1-0. Rosenior changed the formation in the second half but it didn’t stop the Brighton onslaught which eventually did result in a second for the Seagulls, a Brighton clearance from Minteh set up a 2 v 2 as Rutter shrugged Caicedo to the ground leaving Chalobah to deal with both Brighton men as Rutter slipped Hinshelwood in who calmly reversed the ball to the near-post to give Brighton a well deserved 2-0 lead in the 56th minute. Brighton cruised the rest of the game and put some icing on the cake as yet another long ball found its way to Ayari on the left who found Welbeck in the box who finished into the top corner to add even more misery to a horrific night for Chelsea football club, what a performance from Brighton.
Yet another top performance from Brighton. Brighton really are the last team you want to play when you’re going through a bad run of form and they battered Chelsea tonight in what probably should have been a 4 or 5 nil game, I thought they might lose the midfield battle up against Caicedo, Enzo and Lavia but Baleba and Gross ran rings around them all game with the Cameroonian in particular having a real standout game. Baleba has had a tough season after lighting up the league in his first year but he showed his quality tonight winning near enough every duel he was in against one of the best midfielders in the league, Gross yet again had a brilliant game and ran the midfield from minute 1 to 90 as Chelsea couldn’t get near him the whole match. Defensively Brighton weren’t threatened at all as Chelsea couldn’t even manage a shot on target the whole game but going forward players like Kadioglu, Mitoma, Hinshelwood and Rutter were superb and gave the Chelsea defenders nightmares all game, Fabian Hurzeler is doing a fabulous job as Brighton manager and looks like getting them back in Europe for next season, who saw that coming in August?
What a spineless performance from Chelsea. As soon as I saw the team news before the game I knew Chelsea were in trouble switching to a back 5 after playing relatively well against United on Saturday was such a strange decision from Rosenior which backfired almost immediately as Brighton took the lead in three minutes, the front two of Neto and Delap was comical causing no issues for the Brighton backline in a first half so bad I couldn’t really believe what I was watching. The back 5 didn’t stop Brighton creating chance after chance that on another day would have led to at least three goals in that first half, honestly I don’t think there is anything Chelsea can really take as a positive in this game when they have now gone five games in a row in the Premier League without scoring. I think the only saving grace of this season for Chelsea could be the FA cup but on current form can you really see Chelsea beating Leeds on the weekend, at the very least they’ll need Joao Pedro back in the 11 to have any chance of going through. Can the FA cup save Chelsea’s season?
Is this the end for Liam Rosenior? I’ve got to be honest I feel sorry for Liam Rosenior, he was thrust in to a job he wasn’t ready for when he was building something special in France with Strasbourg which clearly the Chelsea ownership took note off but to expect him to come in mid-season and take over from Marseca who already was doing a good job as Chelsea manager was a big mistake and has led us here when Champions League qualification looks quite unlikely. At the start of his tenure Chelsea were scoring for fun as Joao Pedro was on fire culminating in a superb hat-trick at Villa Park when it looked like Chelsea were finally hitting some form, since those last 15 minutes at the Parc Des Princes Chelsea haven’t recovered and have been in free-fall ever since only scoring in the game against Port Vale in the FA cup which remains Chelsea’s saving grace this season. If it is the end of Liam Rosenior I hope he can get back on his feet in the summer as I actually quite like him despite coming out with some outlandish stuff since he’s been Chelsea manager, will he be in charge of Chelsea against Leeds? I don’t think so.
Is Champions League qualification over for Chelsea now? With this win tonight Brighton go above Chelsea into 6th on 50 points leaving Chelsea in 7th which could quite easily be 10th if results go against them this weekend, never mind Champions League but Chelsea could easily finish the season in the bottom half if their form doesn’t improve quickly. Brighton are looking really for at least Europa League next season but maybe Champions League if results go their way over the next few weeks, Chelsea might have to start focussing on the FA cup if they get past Leeds which Man United did in 2024 which did actually save their season despite Ten Haag staying after that win. Could history repeat itself if Chelsea face City in the FA cup final? We’ll find out this weekend.