Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was frustrated with his team’s performance, as their poor form continued in a 3-1 defeat to Brighton on Saturday.
The Blues suffered their third consecutive defeat on Saturday afternoon, losing to the Seagulls at home in the English Premier League.
They are now without a win in four matches and have lost the last three including defeats to Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
Much of the prematch analysis was focused on how the team would fare with their rising injury concerns and signs of crack showed as they lost yet again.
The Club World Cup champions dominated the early exchanges of the match and were in front deservedly in the 24th minute, when Enzo Fernandez headed in a superb cross from Reece James.
The goal seemed to wake Brighton, who upped their tempo as they pushed for an equalizer.
Just like it happened at Manchester United last weekend, the Blues got another player sent off as Trevoh Chalobah was given his marching orders for a foul on Diego Gomez, after a poor pass from Andrey Santos.
The red card proved costly, as Brighton capitalized on their extra man advantage to equalize in the 77th minute through substitute Danny Welbeck.
They were denied a penalty late in the game, but scored two stoppage-time goals through Maxim De Cuyper and Welbeck once again, to seal a memorable 3-1 win.
Chelsea must regroup and hope to bounce back from their poor run of form ahead of their midweek clash with Benfica in the UCL, before facing Liverpool next weekend in the EPL.
Maresca livid with costly mistakes
Speaking after the game, Enzo Maresca was disappointed at his side’s mistake, which had happened for a second straight match.
“ You can’t continue to make mistake. They are game-changing mistakes”, Maresca revealed after the game.
“The message that we just said inside is clear: against any team in the Premier League, you cannot continue to give away presents. These are big mistakes and the game completely changed.
“We need to learn and we need to learn quickly. It can be a mix of experience or it can be a mix of a simple mistake.
“If you watch the first-half today, you don’t think about the injured players because we were in control and dominating the game. In the last two games, unfortunately with two red cards, everything changed.”
