FOOTBALL – BRIGHTON & Hove Albion’s Ferdi Kadioglu netted an early opener and Jack Hinshelwood and Danny Welbeck scored in the second half to pile more misery on floundering Chelsea in a 3-0 Premier League victory last night.
The result sees Brighton climb above their visitors to sixth in the table on 50 points, two ahead of Chelsea, who have won one of their last nine league games and are in danger of missing out on European football next season if they cannot find a way out of their slump.
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior shuffled both his players and his tactics during the game, but they had no response to going in a goal down at the break, and his team limped to another embarrassing defeat.
Brighton’s Kadioglu side-footed home from a corner that was flicked on to break the deadlock in the third minute, and the hosts should have doubled their lead in the 18th minute when Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez mishit a pass that went straight to Carlos Baleba in the visitors’ penalty area.
Baleba squared the ball to Hinshelwood, but his tame effort was cleared by Trevoh Chalobah.
After failing to register a shot on target in the opening 45 minutes, halftime substitute Alejandro Garnacho gave Chelsea’s attack a much-needed shot in the arm, and he immediately created a chance for Romeo Lavia, who blazed over.
Chelsea’s resurgence ended almost as quickly as it began, and in the 56th minute Hinshelwood redeemed his earlier miss by firing home a pass from Georginio Rutter to complete a counter-attack.
With Chelsea still struggling to create any goal-scoring opportunities, Welbeck came off the bench and added a late third to condemn the Blues to a fifth league defeat in a row without scoring.
Rosenior tore strips off his Chelsea side in his post-match interview, saying that the performance was unprofessional and far from the level expected.
“It’s nowhere near enough for this club, it’s nowhere near enough. I can’t come out and lie, I’ll tell the truth - that was an unacceptable performance in every area,” he told Sky Sports.
“It’s a really, really difficult night, the most difficult night, not even so far here at this magnificent football club, (but) in my career, because some of the things I was witnessing today I never, ever want to see again.”
Chelsea take on Leeds United in an FA Cup semi-final on Sunday in a game that could make or break their season.
“I have to sit with the staff, and we have to make sure we get it right for Sunday,” Rosenior said.
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