Woeful Chelsea are beaten by Brighton

Brighton 3

Kadioglu (3′)
Hinshelwood (56′)
Welbeck (90+1′)

Chelsea 0

Chelsea’s slide continued as they produced an appalling performance at Brighton, who comprehensively beat Liam Rosenior’s beleaguered side and moved above them in the table.

The defeat was the Blues’ fifth in a row in the Premier League without scoring – and a huge blow to their chances of securing a Champions League spot for next season.

Ferdi Kadioglu’s early goal put the Seagulls ahead and Jack Hinshelwood netted in the second half before Danny Welbeck added a late third.

Chelsea looked all over the place and were punished for some truly horrendous defending.

For the opener, Jorrel Hato attempted to head away Pascal Gross’s corner at the near post but inadvertently flicked the ball to Kadioglu, who fired home.

There was a now-familiar goalkeeping howler too.

Robert Sanchez inexplicably passed the ball straight to Carlos Baleba, who teed up Hinshelwood for what should have been a simple finish, but his tame effort was cleared off the line by Trevoh Chalobah.

But Hinshelwood made no mistake when Georginio Rutter set him up after easily getting the better of Moises Caicedo.

And in stoppage time, Chelsea failed to deal with a routine long ball and Maxim De Cuyper squared for Welbeck to make it three.

Chelsea: Sanchez; Fofana (Garnacho 46), Chalobah, Hato; Gusto (Acheampong 90+2), Caicedo, Lavia (Essugo 72), Cucurella: Neto, Delap (Guiu 72).

Subs not used: Sharman-Lowe, Tosin, Sarr, Andrey Santos, Derry