Chelsea suffered a third successive defeat under Frank Lampard as Brighton came from behind to win 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
European hopefuls Brighton had started the game brightly, and young forward Evan Ferguson came close to opening the scoring early on as he cracked an effort off the bar.
Chelsea came into the game without a game in their last four fixtures in all competitions, their worst barren run since 1993, though finally found the back of the net in the 13th minute, somewhat against the run of play. January signing Mykhailo Mudryk went on a run forward before laying it off to Conor Gallagher whose effort from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection and looped over Robert Sanchez.
Brighton continued to carve out chances, and for a second successive week were seemingly denied a very strong penalty shout following an apparent handball in the box.
They did however pull the scores level three minutes before the interval, substitute Danny Welbeck rising highest to get on the end of a Pascal Gross cross and steer his header beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga.
The visitors continued to dominate after the break, and in the 69th minute they went ahead with an absolute thunderbolt. 19-year-old talent Julio Enciso received the ball in absolute acres of space, before setting himself and unleashing a cannon of strike from 30 yards to leave Kepa with no chance.
The goal seemed to spark Chelsea into life, though they once again lacked a cutting edge up front as Brighton held on to secure all three points to strengthen their hold on seventh spot.
26 – Chelsea faced 26 shots in their 2-1 defeat against Brighton, their most on record (since 2003-04) in a Premier League home match. Dominated. pic.twitter.com/za98wmtYhN
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 15, 2023
As for Chelsea, the result leaves them in 11th, 10 points behind the Seagulls, and speaking after the game, Frank Lampard admitted ‘the better team won’, and said his side lacked the ‘football basics’.
“I’m disappointed on every level. The better team won. They could have won by more. They played like a team. They’ve been together a long time,” he said.
“Not good enough. All the basic parts of football – to fight, to run – we were short on. Not a question of commitment as such. We have a big game on Tuesday [against Real Madrid]. There’s no point being too down but we have to understand why today went the way it did.
“Some players physically couldn’t be able to play Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday. Some of those changes were forced and some were opportunities. In a modern-day squad you have to be ready to come in.
“As a team, we were short today. Where can we get better quickly? For me, it’s the football basics.
“In football a story can change very quickly. Real Madrid in the Champions League is the pinnacle of football. There’s things I’ll say to the players that I’ll keep in-house. Chelsea fans will be coming on Tuesday to see a team give everything to turn it around and that’s what we have to do.”
