Brighton 2-1 Chelsea: Match report & 3 talking points as toothless Blues come up short | OneFootball

Chelsea's miserable run of form continues on Saturday as they were dumped out of the FA Cup at the expense of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Bart Verbruggen's early own goal was about as good as it got for Chelsea, who were quickly pegged back by Georginio Rutter's header. Kaoru Mitoma added a lovely second early in the second half, handing the Seagulls a victory which rarely looked under threat.

Cole Palmer forced Verbruggen to tip over inside five minutes but ended up scoring from the ensuing corner. A nice passing move saw Palmer given some space wide on the left to fire in a low cross, and his effort clearly caught Verbruggen off guard as the Brighton stopper fumbled the ball into his own net.

It would take Brighton just seven minutes to tie things up. Joel Veltman's cross was expertly steered home by the head of Rutter, who left Robert Sanchez with no chance.

Tensions began to rise, with Brighton fans gleefully booing former Seagulls Robert Sanchez, Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo, and that spilled on to the pitch as a serious of tough tackles were punished with lenient yellow cards.

Brighton took the lead in the 57th minute through Mitoma. The loyal winger did incredibly well to control a high pass and get through on Sanchez's goal, and his lobbed half-volley evaded the lunging Cucurella on the line, although the Blues were left frustrated at a potential handball which was missed in the build-up.

Chelsea had failed to create anything of note at the best of times, but as the pressure ramped up, the Blues continued to look clueless coming forwards. A handful of glimpses of Verbruggen's net were all comfortably dealt with by Brighton, who were deserving victors as the referee put Chelsea out of their misery.

Check out the player ratings from Brighton 2-1 Chelsea here.

Chelsea's striker woes

Nkunku looked lost at times / Steve Bardens/GettyImages

With Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu both sidelined, Enzo Maresca turned to Christopher Nkunku to lead the line, and it soon became clear just how much of an impact that would have on Chelsea's usual style of play.

Nkunku dropped deep to try and involve himself in the build-up. While that was sometimes beneficial, and undeniably led to some excellent runs behind the Brighton defence in the first half, there were far too many moments in which Chelsea looked to be lacking a central presence in front of goal.

At the other end, Rutter showed Chelsea what they were missing. The Frenchman, a reported January target for the Blues, netted a beautiful header and set up Mitoma's go-ahead goal in what was a delightful individual showing.

Maresca's tactics under the microscope

The pressure is on Maresca / Richard Heathcote/GettyImages

For a few weeks now, Chelsea fans have been questioning Enzo Maresca's approach to games. The famous tactical setup he promised to bring has only been half-installed anyway, but there have been increasingly fewer sights of anything positive on the pitch as the season has progressed.

In attack, Chelsea were toothless. Palmer's fourth-minute strike was the Blues' only effort on target as his side attempted to pass Brighton into submission. Slow, sideways pass after slow, sideways pass did nothing other than rile up fans. Things weren't much better at the back, with Chelsea's setup failing to offer any real security.

Maresca needs to find a solution soon. His Leicester City side endured a similar downturn in form last season at a very similar time, and the Italian steadied the ship enough to seal the Championship title. There'll be no domestic silverware this season for Chelsea, whose hopes of lifting a trophy now lie in the Conference League.

Bart Verbruggen's rough patch continues

A nightmare for Verbruggen / Crystal Pix/MB Media/GettyImages

After shipping seven against Nottingham Forest last time out, Verbruggen needed a calm start to proceedings here to restore his confidence. Unfortunately, he got the complete opposite.

The Dutchman followed a smart tip over his bar with a disastrous attempt to scoop up Palmer's cross, misreading the trajectory of the ball as he spilled it into the back of his own net to gift Chelsea an early advantage.

Thankfully for Verbruggen, that was almost the full extent of his involvement here. allowing him to regain his composure as Brighton strolled through to victory.