Brighton 3-0 Chelsea: It’s been more than 100 years since this last happened to Chelsea FC. Brighton & Hove Albion have deepened the Blues’ crisis while edging closer to a spot in the Champions League

Brighton & Hove Albion v Chelsea - Premier League

Team manager Fabian Hürzeler has inflicted another damaging defeat on club world champions Chelsea FC, this time at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion, and can now dream of European competition.

Brighton & Hove Albion, nicknamed the “Seagulls”, cruised to a 3-0 (1-0) victory over Chelsea, known as the “Blues”, in a one-sided contest that propelled them up to sixth place. That position could now be good enough for Champions League qualification, provided Europa League semi-finalists Aston Villa go on to lift the trophy.

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 the BBC 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.

FBL-ENG-PR-BRIGHTON-CHELSEA

Chelsea travel to Brighton without Cole Palmer and co.

Chelsea were without captain Reece James, plus key men Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro. Rosenior’s desperate response was a five-man defence, and his side still looked nervy. After half an hour Brighton had racked up seven shots and 15 penalty-area entries, while Chelsea could muster only one.

Hürzeler, meanwhile, extended his unbeaten run to ten matches against English managers—a feat bettered only by former World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who managed eleven consecutive games without defeat at Chelsea.

Chelsea FC’s last five league matches

Date

Match

Result

14 March

Chelsea vs. Newcastle

0–1

21 March

Everton vs. Chelsea

3–0

12 April

Chelsea vs. Manchester City

0–3

18 April

Chelsea vs. Manchester United

0–1

21 April

Brighton vs. Chelsea

3–0