How much longer can this go on? A fifth straight league defeat for Chelsea without scoring and how fitting it is that the last time that happened was the year the Titanic sank.
To describe this Chelsea team as being all at sea under Liam Rosenior is to do a disservice to that famous old wreckage and you have to wonder whether he will remain the man to salvage what’s left of their season.
The chants of ‘F*** off, Rosenior’ that erupted from the away end after Jack Hinshelwood made it 2-0 told you what the Chelsea fans thought about that.
Chelsea are seven points adrift of the Champions League places now. Their only real hope is that Aston Villa finish outside the top four and win the Europa League so that sixth will qualify.
Can they even manage that? Even Brighton moved above them with their win here, and this is a club that was also calling for their manager to be sacked earlier in the campaign.
This defeat has given Chelsea’s owners a huge decision to make. Do they trust Rosenior to get them out of this mess and to beat Leeds this weekend and reach the FA Cup final or do they come to the same realisation as the fans and think he’s lost this group of players?
Liam Rosenior is under huge pressure at Chelsea after a fifth straight Premier League defeat
Chelsea are seven points adrift of the Champions League places after another poor display
Co-owner Behdad Eghbali was in the stands and he will surely have noticed Moises Caicedo, the recent recipient of a seven-year contract, ambling back for Brighton’s second goal.
If Rosenior’s problems were not already piling high enough before this defeat, having the news leaked by one of his players’ barbers that Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro would both be missing through injury was not likely to have been on his bingo card.
Marc Cucurella’s hairdresser posted the news on X earlier in the day with a picture of the Chelsea full-back having his hair trimmed. He’d be proved right, too. Palmer, so Rosenior confirmed, felt some tightness in his hamstring and so wasn’t risked ahead of the FA Cup semi-final against Leeds on Sunday when Pedro was also expected to return.
Just what he needed. Trying – and failing – to end their goal drought without the only two Chelsea players to score in the league since the victory over West Ham at the end of January.
Palmer and Pedro had netted 10 between them since then. Even the one in defeat at Arsenal was a Piero Hincapie own goal.
It was clear Rosenior felt he had to do something. Mix it up, roll the dice, whatever you want to call it. That started with his system, whatever shape it was. Sometimes it looked like a back five, the first time he’d used one in the league all season, at others the good old-fashioned 4-4-2 with Jorrel Hato at right-back and Cucurella on the wing. Enzo Fernandez started up front with Liam Delap and Pedro Neto floated in a strange auxiliary wing-back role. The generous observer might call it ‘fluid’. More than anything, it just looked a mess. It was as though Rosenior had lobbed some spaghetti hoops at his tactics board and told his players to follow whatever path they took as they slid down.
His players seemed to find it just as difficult to fathom as those watching from the sidelines. No wonder Brighton cut through them at will, especially in the early stages, and frequently via the slicing right boot of Pascal Gross.
The German frequently found tons of space down the Brighton right and whipped in dangerous cross after cross from deep.
His first, with barely three minutes on the clock, found an unmarked Kaoru Mitoma at the back post who so nearly recreated his stunning volley at Tottenham only for Robert Sanchez, one of the former Brighton lot alongside Cucurella and Moises Caicedo who were booed every time they touched the ball.
It was from the resulting corner that Hato flicked the ball on at the near post only as far as the unguarded Ferdi Kadioglu beyond the back stick to rifle in the opening goal.
Gross whipped another towards Jan Paul van Hecke, which the centre-back met with his head and Sanchez, again, had to tip over.
Jack Hinshelwood scored Brighton’s second as the Seagulls ran out comfortable winners
Danny Welbeck came off the bench to add a third and compound the misery for Chelsea
Co-owner Behdad Eghbali was in the stands as the Blues’ dreadful run of form continued
The Chelsea goalkeeper, never too far away from a mistake, needed rescuing himself when he saw his pass intercepted by Carlos Baleba inside his own penalty area and it was only the desperate defending of Trevoh Chalobah that cleared Jack Hinshelwood’s effort off the line. Hinshelwood would make no mistake just before the hour when Brighton broke away, Chelsea somehow left with a two-on-two, and Rutter slipped him.
Chelsea created absolutely nothing. They mustered just a single shot in the first half and that was only a long-range punt into a crowd of bodies by Chalobah.
The only positive was that they went into half-time just a goal down but for a club that’s spent £2billion under Todd Boehly and BlueCo, Rosenior could only turn to a bench with two Premier League goals this season between them.
One of those goals was from Alejandro Garnacho, jeered by both sets of fans against his former club Manchester United at the weekend, who came off the bench to replace Wesley Fofana as Rosenior changed system again.
Garnacho did, at least, tee up Romeo Lavia for an effort not long after the restart but one that flew safely over the bar. That was about it.
By then, Brighton were having fun. Mitoma did some kick ups to lob the ball over Neto before volleying just wide. Kadioglu had another couple of efforts saved. Danny Welbeck came off the bench late on to add a third.
Chelsea will have to be much, much better than this if they are to get the better of Leeds this weekend at Wembley, whoever is in charge. Daniel Farke’s side are full of life. Chelsea, on the other hand, are sinking and fast.
