Chelsea fall to their most disappointing defeat of the season as away woes worsen
Brighton & Hove Albion (2) 3 v Chelsea (0) 0
Mitoma 27
Minteh 38
Minteh 63
By Kaz Mochlinski at the Amex Community Stadium
Premier League
Matchweek 25
Chelsea’s season appeared to be in danger of imploding as Enzo Maresca turned against his players after the Blues’ worst defeat under him with an abject 3-0 loss at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Kaoru Mitoma with a wondrous piece of skill for the opening goal and two neat strikes by Yankuba Minteh secured the home side’s victory, and it could have been even worse as Brighton also hit the post late on.
Maresca apologised to the travelling fans for the manner of how Chelsea were beaten, admitting “since I arrived that is the worst performance”, and accusing his team of lacking desire and a positive attitude.
Chelsea’s head coach expressed his shock and disappointment at how poorly his players performed, acknowledging that “there are many things we have to do better.”
When pressed for details of what is going wrong recently for Chelsea, Maresca pointed to some very basic shortcomings: “We are in a moment when we feel we can concede easily and struggle to score.”
The coach is culpable in the way that he sets up his side, this time switching Cole Palmer from his usual creative role to instead lead the attack as a lone striker. The frustration felt by Chelsea’s stand-out star was very evident from his body language.
He swapped places periodically with Christopher Nkunku in the number 10 position, but, if the intention was for Palmer to be a “false number nine”, in practice Chelsea seemed to be playing without any centre-forward for most of the match.
The outcome was that the Blues did not have a single shot on goal - for the first time in the Premier League since September 2021 against Manchester City. At Brighton, it was despite having almost 70% possession.
Over two visits to the South Downs in the space of six days, the Londoners managed just one attempt on target in 180 minutes, with both their last two successful strikes being own goals from two Palmer left wing crosses.
It means that own goals are leading the club’s scoring chart this month - and it is a damning reflection of what they produced on this Friday night that Chelsea’s best chance of getting something from the game would have been through another own goal.
Their solitary good opening came in the 86th minute, from a right wing run and cut-back by the teenager Tyrique George, who provided some energy and drive after being brought on as a late substitute.
George’s low ball in was almost reached by Nkunku at the near post but Adam Webster got there first and would have diverted it into his own net if Bart Verbruggen had not reacted rapidly to make a superb save.
Scoring then would only have been a very small consolation for Chelsea. They were already well beaten after conceding three goals away from home for the second successive league game.
On this occasion it came after again changing goalkeepers, as Robert Sánchez was dropped against his old club, and Filip Jørgensen replaced him as the Blues’ confirmed new number one.
Incredibly, Maresca also picked yet another new back four - remarkably making it the 26th different defensive line that he has started with in all competitions this season (in a total of 37 matches).
Furthermore, this was the ninth game in a row in which a new combination of defenders was fielded, including in every single one of Chelsea’s eight outings in 2025.
That undoubtedly must be a factor in failing to win any away encounters in the new year, having not registered a victory on the road in the Premier League since the success at Spurs in early December.
During the subsequent 10 weeks, Chelsea are winless in five away league matches, taking only two points from a possible 15. In all, they have not triumphed in six consecutive contests on their travels, culminating in a current sequence of three defeats.
Even taking account of overcoming Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge, the Blues have now recorded just two wins in their last nine Premier League games.
And from having been quite comfortable in second place in the table, Chelsea are seriously struggling to stay in the Champions League qualifying spots after this recent run of results.
On their previous league trip to the South Coast, supporters were singing at Southampton “We’ve got our Chelsea back!” Only two and a half months later, the chanting has reverted to “We want our Chelsea back!”
In addition, songs in appreciation of former owner Roman Abramovich have been revived over the last couple of weeks as his American corporate replacements increasingly fail to impress.
The criticism of their squad-building for Maresca is growing. And, with the Blues’ repeated poaching of players and staff from Albion, there is always an inevitable extra focus on Chelsea’s visits to Brighton.
This was where former Seagulls’ head coach Graham Potter had his brief spell with the West London club doomed to be a disappointment by a hapless 4-1 defeat two seasons ago.
It was also here last spring Mauricio Pochettino publicly confirmed that the players provided for him were not the ones he had wanted, dramatically revealing “That is not my team”.
Poch was speaking from a position of strength after getting a 1-2 win in the excellent late season series of good results with which he guided Chelsea up the Premier League table to European qualification.
Despite that, the Argentinian was dismissed not long afterwards by the owners from Clearlake Capital. Now it is Maresca’s turn to be concerned as the 3-0 loss continues Chelsea’s poor period over this winter.
Maresca had himself built up the importance of this match, pointing out that it came at a key moment in the season, with Chelsea having a chance to consolidate their position in the contest for Champions League qualification.
While Maresca thought it could be an advantage to play prior to all their rivals this time, his side gave the impression that they would rather be with their loved ones on this Valentine’s Day than on a football pitch.
Noni Madueke made one decent run down the right early on, which Palmer failed to capitalise on, but the winger shortly afterwards went down injured with a hamstring strain that ended his involvement prematurely.
It is similar to the injury which recently ruled out Nicolas Jackson for the coming few weeks, although with only one goal in his last 10 league games - and none in 2025 - he was hardly contributing substantially.
Chelsea are maybe missing the defensive solidity provided by the sadly injury-prone long-term absentees Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana far more, as the team’s bad patch has coincided with losing both of them.
Nevertheless, it had seemed like a really good time to take on Brighton, who had not won any of their previous five home matches in the Premier League, and had been beaten 7-0 at Nottingham Forest in their last league game.
Moreover, Albion were without their influential captain, Lewis Dunk, due to a rib injury sustained in the FA Cup tie between the two clubs six days earlier, in which the Seagulls had come back to triumph 2-1.
Following that up with an even more comprehensive 3-0 success in their Premier League meeting prompted the celebrating Brighton fans to delightedly sing “Twice in a week, olé, olé!” and “Can we play you every week?”
Chelsea were in trouble from the moment Mitoma scored, adding to his winning goal in the Cup tie and continuing his fine form lately with a fourth goal in his past six appearances. The Blues’ response was almost inevitable.
There are rumours circulating that Chelsea want to buy Mitoma for around £70 million, after Brighton reportedly rejected lower offers during the January transfer window. On the pitch there was less of a reaction from the capital club.
A Malo Gusto cross from the right was headed in by Enzo Fernández but the goal was rightly disallowed immediately by the referee, Chris Kavanagh, for a push from the visitors’ midfielder on Joël Veltman, which was quickly confirmed as a foul by VAR.
When Veltman got clear in the penalty box to connect with a lofted ball from the substitute Yasin Ayari, but saw it rebound off the post with Jørgensen beaten, at least it spared Chelsea from greater humiliation. There was little other solace for the Blues.
Brighton and Hove Albion: (4-2-3-1) Verbruggen - Veltman, van Hecke, Webster, Lamptey - Baleba (Ayari 84), Hinshelwood (Gómez 73) - Minteh (Adingra 89), Rutter (João Pedro 73), Mitoma - Welbeck (O’Riley 84)
Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Jørgensen - Gusto (James 65), Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella - Caicedo (Dewsbury-Hall 65), Fernández - Madueke (Sancho 21), Nkunku, Neto (George 65) - Palmer
Attendance: 31,503
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