Chelsea kicked off the match strongly, controlling the ball and creating a few threatening opportunities in the initial minutes. Unfortunately, we failed to challenge the goalkeeper, whose errors went untested, and we couldn’t capitalize on our chances.

Brighton struggled to find their rhythm early in the game, despite our attempts to assist them with a couple of careless turnovers. However, Chelsea maintained the upper hand, and another promising opportunity slipped away in the 18th minute.

That moment turned out to be crucial, as Noni Madueke sustained an injury during the play, significantly impacting Chelsea’s performance thereafter.

Brighton took the lead with a straightforward route-one goal from Mitoma just before the half-hour mark. Although it was a nice touch, it should have been easily defended. They extended their lead shortly before half-time, capitalizing on another unfortunate turnover that caused chaos in our penalty area.

In between those two goals, Chelsea had an equalizer disallowed due to a foul by Enzo on his defender. More specifically, the defender went down dramatically after feeling slight contact. Such is the nature of the game. Overall, we were considerably outplayed.

Chelsea labored through the second half, yet it was the home team that kept applying pressure, ultimately scoring a third goal through the impressive Minteh, who netted his second of the match. They could easily have added more to the scoreline.

It was a truly disheartening evening.

Carefree.

• Brighton made one adjustment from their previous FA Cup match, while we implemented four changes, with Sanchez, Tosin, KDH, and Sancho omitted from the squad.
• Madueke has unfortunately joined the growing list of players suffering from hamstring injuries across the league.
• Chelsea registered zero shots on target throughout the match.
• We have only secured 2 wins out of 9 league matches.
• This marks the most significant defeat of Maresca’s tenure at Chelsea.
• Looking ahead, we face Aston Villa away next Saturday.
• KTBFFH

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