Chelsea's slide towards mid-table mediocrity under Liam Rosenior continued at Brighton on Tuesday evening, with the blunt Blues suffering an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at the Amex. After four consecutive Premier League losses without scoring a single goal, the fifth-placed Londoners had arrived on the south coast hoping to revive their hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League. However, they now sit sixth after allowing Brighton to climb above them with disturbing ease.
Indeed, despite the enormity of the game for Chelsea, Rosenior's side showed almost no urgency at all and found themselves a goal down after just three minutes of play, with Ferdi Kadioglu firing home from inside the area, after the visitors had failed dismally to deal with a corner. Not even the shock of conceding early sparked a response from Chelsea's disinterested players, who managed only one shot during an abject first-half performance.
There was a semblance of effort after the restart but there was an air of inevitability about Brighton's second goal, which arrived in the 56th minute, with Giorginio Rutter leaving Jack Hinshelwood with a simple finish after more dreadful Chelsea defending. There was no way back for the Blues at that point and their misery was complete when Danny Welbeck came off the bench to make it 3-0 in injury time.
Below,GOAL issues ratings to all of the Blues on show at the Amex as the reigning 'world champions' suffered a fifth goal-less defeat in a row for the first time since 1912...