With four matchdays remaining, Chelsea occupy seventh place, two points adrift of Brighton. Liam Rosenior’s side have now suffered five successive league defeats without finding the net—a barren run not seen since 1912, the year the Titanic sank, as theBBC noted.
Ferdi Kadioglu (3’) opened the scoring from a Pascal Groß corner, Jack Hinshelwood (56’) added a second, and substitute Danny Welbeck (90+1’) rounded off the win for Brighton. Chelsea did have a strong case for a handball penalty when Marc Cucurella cleared the ball on the limit of acceptability in his own box (54’). Brighton’s second, however, was itself preceded by a handball from Yankuba Minteh.