Chelsea have lost four in a row in the Premier League and Brighton can go above them with victory tonight
Chelsea are without both Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro as Liam Rosenior ’s side bid to end their losing Premier League run against Brighton and keep their faint hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League alive.
Rosenior is under pressure after a run of four straight top-flight defeats, including a 1-0 reverse at the hands of Manchester United at Stamford Bridge last time out, and he will be without two of his key attackers in Palmer and Pedro for the trip to in-form Brighton.
The Seagulls can go above Chelsea with a win victory tonight and Fabian Hurzeler ’s side remain in the hunt for European football themselves this season, in what is turning into a tightly packed race for sixth place.
Rosenior confirmed that Palmer has been rested ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds after feeling discomfort in his hamstring.
“Cole's had some tightness so he's going to be out for this game and see how he moves on for this FA Cup semi-final,” Rosenior said.
HALF TIME!
Brighton 1-0 Chelsea
Chelsea’s effort on goal shot came after 40 minutes and they did not manage a single shot on target.
“It was embarrassingly woeful,” says the former Brighton and Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell on Sky Sports .
Brighton have been totally dominant and should be out of sight.
But the hosts, who are going above Chelsea into sixth as things stands, have been unable to add to Kadioglu’s opener inside four minutes.
For Chelsea, the good news it’s only 1-0.
That’s it, that’s the good news.
They have been so, so bad.
Dismal.
Woeful.
42 mins: Sanchez boots the ball straight out of play for maybe the fourth time tonight.
The goalkeeper has been a disaster with the ball at his feet.
40 mins: Neto wins a corner and from it, Chelsea get their first shot of the match.
Chalobah’s effort is blocked, though.
Neto jogs over to take a throw-in but looks fuming at his team-mates.
“We want our club back,” chant the away fans, not for the first time tonight.
38 mins: Chelsea have now gone seven hours in the Premier League without scoring a goal.
36 mins: More cheers from the Brighton fans as Sanchez kicks the ball out of play looking for Neto.
Nothing, nothing has gone right for Chelsea so far.
32 mins: Chelsea are struggling to string any passes together.
Despite their absences, Chelsea still have Caicedo, Fernandez and Lavia in midfield but they are being dominated by Brighton’s press.
The set-up is just not right and it would not be a surprise to see Rosenior rip up his gameplan at half-time, or earlier.
28 mins: It’s getting heated between former team-mates Gross and Caicedo, with the referee breaking the former Brighton colleagues up.
Fernandez is then caught from behind and is left in a heap rubbing the back of his foot.
25 mins: Delap carries forwards and Han Hecke concedes the corner.
Brighton are able to clear consecutive deliveries by Neto and Chelsea are forced back to Sanchez, who boots the ball straight back to Brighton.
Chelsea just went from Caicedo, to Cucurella, to Sanchez, triggering a chain of boos.
23 mins: Another decent moment for Brighton as Minteh comes inside and curls towards goal.
Fofana is forced to hack behind.
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