Brighton & Hove Albion (1) 3 v Chelsea (0) 0
Kadıoğlu 3
Welbeck 91
By Kaz Mochlinski at the Amex Community Stadium
Premier League
Matchweek 34
Chelsea’s collapse under Liam Rosenior went into freefall at Brighton as the Blues were beaten for a fifth consecutive league game without scoring, to record their worst run of results for over a century.
This is the first time that Chelsea have experienced such a sequence since 1912 - and it was completed by a capitulation against Albion which was so abject that the relationship of the players and head coach appeared to be broken beyond repair.
The travelling supporters turned vociferously against Rosenior during the match, and immediately afterwards he sought to blame the players, accusing them of a lack of “professionalism” in their poorest performance of the season.
Chelsea fell behind at Brighton in less than three minutes, conceding from a corner with chaotic defending, and they never looked like getting back into the game, failing to produce a single shot on target or force a save before the final whistle.
The day began badly for the Blues when Cole Palmer was ruled out of the trip to the South Coast due to a hamstring strain, with details of Rosenior’s plans for the encounter being leaked out from the dressing room yet again.
The coach then exacerbated the situation by restoring Enzo Fernández as captain after one match without the armband, at the expense of the clearly disappointed Moisés Caicedo, who was far below his usual high level against his old club.
And Rosenior tried once more to start with three centre-backs in defence, before having to abandon the experiment as he has had to do previously on several occasions already, but it was not until half-time that he switched to a less-cautious formation.
Nothing worked, with Chelsea being reduced to a disjointed rabble early on, as the hosts tore into them from the outset, only being stopped by a series of superb saves from Robert Sánchez, and a desperate goal-line clearance by Trevoh Chalobah.
Brighton & Hove Albion were brilliant, and their sixth win in the last eight games took them above the Blues, who dropped to seventh place in the league standings and could easily be in the lower half of the table by the end of the coming weekend.
Chelsea have now not scored in the Premier League since 4th March - seven weeks ago - and they have not kept a clean sheet since 17th January - in Rosenior’s first league match in charge, three months ago.
On this chilly Tuesday evening in late April they had let in a goal after just 173 seconds, as their defensive set-piece struggles continued. A Pascal Gross corner was finished with a low shot by the unmarked Ferdi Kadıoğlu, scoring for the first time in 17 months.
Kadıoğlu was hugely helped by defender Jorrel Hato’s dangerous near-post back-header across his own team’s goal, then Wesley Fofana’s lunge in front of Sánchez as he was about to save the shot, with the ball being agonisingly deflected into the net.
Albion could well have already been ahead before that, as another Gross cross provided an opportunity for Kaoru Mitoma to almost exactly replicate his great goal at Spurs on Saturday, but Sánchez managed to tip the volley over the bar.
The Chelsea goalkeeper’s interventions kept his side in the game, although the flawed flipside of his skillset is dreadful distribution, and this too was abundantly apparent when he repeatedly gave possession away.
One such horrendous error, playing a pass straight to Carlos Baleba inside the penalty box, was not finished off by Jack Hinshelwood with an open goal to aim at, as Chalobah amazingly got back to deny Brighton.
However, Hinshelwood made amends in the second half by finally stretching the Seagulls’ lead on a lightning counter-attack when put through on the left by Georginio Rutter after a Yankuba Minteh clearance out of defence.
Minteh had tracked back to stop Alejandro Garnacho, with a point-blank rebound flicking off the arm of the Albion player in the process, but rightly no offence was identified by the referee, Craig Pawson, nor on the inevitable VAR check.
It was not until stoppage time that Brighton added a thoroughly deserved third goal, as two substitutes combined, with Maxim De Cuyper’s left-wing run and cross being put away by a sweet strike from Danny Welbeck into the far top corner of the net.
Yet, even when the advantage was only one or two goals, Chelsea never indicated that any sort of comeback would be possible. Rosenior’s replacements summed it up, sending on Garnacho, Marc Guiu, Dário Essugo and Josh Acheampong.
Missing the injured Reece James, João Pedro and Estêvão Willian in addition to Palmer, the Blues had a xG of 0.04 in the opening period, which is lower than any half in all the matches under their previous head coach, Enzo Maresca.
They did not make a tackle in the initial half hour, and they were out-run for a 34th successive Premier League game out of 34 this season. It was the first time in 14 months that they did not manage an attempt on target.
The last time was also at Brighton, in their worst performance of the 2024-25 campaign, when the outcome was an identical 3-0 result. “Can we play you every week?” roared the home sections for the second year running.
“Europe again, olé, olé!” they added, as Chelsea now risk missing out, not just on the Champions League, but on any qualification for European football next season altogether.
The away end did not hide their unhappiness, chorusing “Chelsea get battered, everywhere we go”, with the Albion responding by sending some love to their ex-player and junior coach, singing “Liam Rosenior, he’s one of our own”.
In his own post-match analysis, Rosenior kept repeating the word “unacceptable”, bemoaning an “indefensible” display and pointedly accusing his team of “a lack of spirit and a lack of belief”.
“It was unacceptable in every aspect of the game” he seethed. “Unacceptable in our attitude. I keep coming out and defending the players, but that’s indefensible, that performance tonight.
“The manner of the goals we conceded, the amount of duels that we lost, the lack of intensity in the team. Something needs to change drastically right now. I think the players need to have a look in the mirror for what they put in.
“You can talk about tactics. Tactics come after the basics. Having more courage to play, winning duels, winning headers, tackles. We’re conceding terrible goals. That was an unacceptable performance tonight.”
Chelsea have a huge FA Cup semi-final coming up on Sunday at Wembley Stadium against Leeds United. But, at Brighton, it was difficult to conceive any way in which another change of head coach is avoidable in such a rapidly deteriorating situation.
Attendance: 31,220