{"id":544054,"date":"2026-04-22T04:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544054\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:49:10","slug":"brighton-subject-chelsea-and-rosenior-to-fifth-league-defeat-in-a-row-without-scoring-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544054\/","title":{"rendered":"Brighton subject Chelsea and Rosenior to fifth league defeat in a row without scoring | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps time to celebrate Brighton\u2019s achievements, though it would be hard not to view this windswept South Coast evening through the lens of Chelsea\u2019s latest crisis. Following another grim chapter in the Liam Rosenior saga, his name taken in vain by angry away fans, Chelsea look on at Brighton as an example of responsible stewardship, of careful recruitment, a model they have failed to emulate and now lag behind in the Premier League<\/a> table.<\/p>\n

Brighton\u2019s return to the European football enjoyed under Roberto De\u00a0Zerbi is fully on the cards. Fabian H\u00fcrzeler, an appointment in which there was considerable doubt earlier this season, has revived his team. He has still never been defeated by an opposing English manager. Goals by Ferdi Kadioglu and Jack Hinshelwood had done damage to Chelsea<\/a>, even if much of it was self-inflicted. The margin of victory might have been far more by the time Danny Welbeck scored the third in stoppage time to complete as convincing a win\u2013 and defeat \u2013 as it gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnacceptable in every aspect of the game,\u201d said Rosenior, perhaps already beyond the point of no return.<\/p>\n

If Chelsea were mournfully bad, they were picked off by opponents motivated by having plenty to play for, full of movement and creativity, the diametric opposite of the visitors. \u201cWith the way the manager sets us up, we always have different patterns where players are rotating, players are stepping forward with the ball, there\u2019s lots of options to play forward,\u201d said Welbeck. Kadioglu put it well: \u201cWe didn\u2019t let them breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are able to manage the games better, we are able to play more consistent football,\u201d said H\u00fcrzeler. \u201cNot always we can win but it is always our intention to go out on the pitch and make the fans proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Chelsea, the portents were never promising. The absence of the hamstrung Cole Palmer had been a surprise, though not to those who caught leaked team news from Marc Cucurella\u2019s barber. So too was a 3-5-2 formation used only once under Rosenior, and unlikely to be deployed again.<\/p>\n

Brighton began like a train, Chelsea a drain. Following his Van Basten-esque volley against Tottenham<\/a>, to let Kaoru Mitoma have an early crack at repeating it from Pascal Gross\u2019s cross was negligent. Even more so the defending of the subsequent corner, Kadioglu stabbing past Robert S\u00e1nchez to score. Is seven minutes in the earliest known chorus of \u201cwe want our Chelsea back\u201d ever?<\/p>\n

Jack Hinshelwood doubles Brighton\u2019s lead from close range. Photograph: Matthew Childs\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Cucurella, Mois\u00e9s Caicedo and S\u00e1nchez, all former Brighton players, were loudly jeered by home fans. A midfield trio of Caicedo, Rom\u00e9o Lavia and Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, combined transfer value over \u00a3270m, offered little defensive cover, wing-backs Jorrel Hato and Malo Gusto unable to stop Mitoma\u2019s and Yankuba Minteh\u2019s wing play.<\/p>\n

Chelsea\u2019s best-case scenario was Brighton failing to capitalise on their dominance, as has been a shortcoming. But having passed 400 minutes without a Premier League goal, that also asked for improvements beyond them under Rosenior.<\/p>\n

His team played right into the hands of H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s high-press, quick-transition dream scenario, even if they temporarily managed to slow the first half direction of travel. The main creative outlet appeared to be S\u00e1nchez\u2019s goal-kicks, a number of which skewed straight out of play. Finally Chelsea\u2019s first shot arrived in the 41st minute, Chalobah\u2019s effort blocked by onrushing Brighton bodies.<\/p>\n

The half-time introduction of Alejandro Garnacho was risky \u00adconsidering his low-quality performance against Manchester United<\/a>. A 4-2-3-1 formation was adopted, Wesley Fofana the player removed. Those moments in the dressing room were surely among the most important of Rosenior\u2019s short reign. How many more half-time team talks will he get to give? Will Sunday at Wembley against Leeds be among them? A small but audible section of away fans made their feelings on the manager known in no uncertain terms. They got louder and more numerous.<\/p>\n

Though Chelsea initially appeared more comfortable in that more suitable formation, chances still fell to Brighton, Mitoma dragging wide, Minteh slapping the ball off Cucurella\u2019s arm, though too high for video assistance to intervene.<\/p>\n

A similar ruling followed when the ball bounced off Minteh\u2019s arm. While distracted Chelsea players complained, Brighton seized on attention being diverted. Georginio Rutter broke clear and picked out Hinshelwood to slot the second. Chelsea\u2019s improvement, such as it was, had been squandered by the same lapses of concentration of which Rosenior complains but has found no cure.<\/p>\n

\u201cA great connection with the fans,\u201d said a beaming H\u00fcrzeler afterwards, pinpointing another thing Chelsea are struggling to emulate.<\/p>\n

Rosenior did at least receive some backing, though that came from Brighton fans recalling him fondly as a player. How soon until his Chelsea reign becomes a memory?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps time to celebrate Brighton\u2019s achievements, though it would be hard not to view this windswept South Coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-544054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}