On the latest dark night in an increasingly grim campaign, images of Chelsea’s misery could be seen all over the Amex Stadium. On the touchline, Liam Rosenior stood with his hands in his pockets and a frown on his face. High above him, co-owner Behdad Eghbali clenched his jaw. And on the pitch, Chelsea’s broken players were bullied and cowed by their opponents.
None more so than Moisés Caicedo, the former Brighton player, in the moments leading to the home side’s second goal. Chelsea’s midfield hard man, a £115m signing, was left floundering on the turf as Georginio Rutter and Jack Hinshelwood surged forward to score. As a single snapshot, it encapsulated this game better than any other.
The discontent among the Chelsea fans, which was already considerable, reached new extremes on this grisly trip to the south coast. Those supporters have mostly targeted the club’s owners in recent weeks but here they also aimed their chants at the head coach. “F— off Rosenior,” came the cry from the away end as Brighton attacked again and again.
There can be no overstating the scale of the current problem at Chelsea, even if the absence of the injured Cole Palmer was an excuse of sorts. Rosenior’s players have now lost five consecutive league matches without scoring a single goal. The last time a Chelsea team achieved such a feat? 1912.
One of the many mistakes made by Chelsea’s BlueCo owners in recent years has been to make an enemy out of Brighton. The consistent poaching of Brighton’s players and staff has made this a grudge fixture for the south coast club, and how the home fans luxuriated in this thrashing they delivered.
Brighton, who struck through Ferdi Kadioglu, Hinshelwood and Danny Welbeck, have won three league games in a row against Chelsea. Their superiority also now extends to the Premier League table, with this victory taking them above Chelsea into sixth.
Champions League qualification certainly seems a more realistic ambition for Fabian Hürzeler’s side than it does for this fragile, disjointed Chelsea. It is Brighton, not Chelsea, who had cohesion and class. Brighton, not Chelsea, who boasted actual attacking firepower.
These were already tricky times for Rosenior, a young coach fighting to establish himself in the world’s most punishing league, and his preparations for this game were made even more difficult by the injuries to Palmer and João Pedro. To put it simply, those are Chelsea’s best two attacking players. The absence of wingers Estêvão Willian and Jamie Gittens also did not help, and neither did Marc Cucurella’s barber leaking the team news on social media.
It all led to a remarkable situation where Chelsea, a club that has spent so much money on so many players, arrived at the Amex with a frontline that could barely be described as middleweight. The two forwards in the starting line-up were Liam Delap (one league goal all season) and Pedro Neto (no league goals in 2026).
A consequence of Palmer and Pedro’s absence was Rosenior switching to an unfamiliar formation with five defenders. It was far from the most adventurous attacking plan for a team that has not scored in the Premier League since March 4, and Brighton evidently sensed Chelsea’s vulnerability from kick-off.
The home side almost scored after two minutes, when Kaoru Mitoma’s half-volley tested Robert Sánchez, and did score after three. Chelsea failed to clear an inswinging corner, allowing Kadioglu to steer home a low strike, via a deflection.
Within six minutes of action, the away supporters produced their first rendition of their current favourite song: “We want our Chelsea back”. Within 15 minutes, they were directing their anger at co-owner Behdad Eghbali. Between those chants, Neto fell over on the ball and Trevoh Chalobah punted it aimlessly out of play.
Truly, this was a hideous start to the game by Chelsea, who looked much more like a mid-table team than a Champions League contender. They were lucky not to concede again before the 20-minute mark, when Sanchez passed the ball straight to Carlos Baleba in his own penalty area. Only the quick thinking of Chalobah, blocking Jack Hinshelwood’s shot, prevented the goal.
Brighton, by contrast, had energy and purpose in every pass and run. Pascal Gross and Baleba, in particular, were dominant in midfield. Hürzeler’s side had won five of their previous seven matches and the difference in confidence between the two teams was evident.
As has been the case ever since BlueCo first began picking off Brighton’s players and coaches, the home crowd relished every Chelsea error – especially when the error was made by one of Sánchez, Cucurella or Caicedo, all former Brighton players. Sánchez was targeted mercilessly.
To little surprise, Rosenior abandoned his back-five at the break. Chelsea were more offensive as a result, but also more open. Rutter soon overpowered Caicedo before setting up Hinshelwood for the second. It was no more than Brighton, so energetic throughout, deserved against this crumbling Chelsea team – and it was to get even worse, when Welbeck powered a gorgeous finish into the top corner, from Maxim De Cuyper’s cross.