- Chelsea fell to Brighton in fourth round of FA Cup
- Verbruggen's unfortunate own goal soon cancelled out by impressive Seagulls
- Maresca facing significant pressure after underwhelming performance
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.
How the game unfolded
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.
