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Estevao Willian takes on Mitoma. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Match Report: Chelsea collapse after red card to lose 3-1 at home to Brighton

Originally posted on Chelsea News | Last updated Sep 29, 2025 5:30 AM ET

Chelsea made it 3 games without a win in the Premier League as they slumped to a 3-1 defeat against Brighton at Stamford Bridge.

Things had been going pretty well for most of the game. Enzo Maresca’s team continued to struggle to create chances, but an incisive attack from Moises Caicedo and Reece James down the right set up Enzo Fernandez to score from close range with a header.

From there things were set up nicely – playing at home, winning 1-0 with great counter attacking players on the pitch. It should have been a case of defending well and picking their moments for Chelsea. But a single mistake changed everything.

Andrey Santos took a poor touch and made a poor pass, under very little pressure out on the right hand side. That handed the ball to Diego Gomez, and when Trevoh Chalobah brought him down on the edge of the area, we all knew what was coming – even if it did take VAR a while to figure it out.

Chalobah saw red, and Chelsea then were back where they were a week ago against Manchester United. This time they had a goal lead to defend, and for a while they looked like they might get away with it. But once again a lack of experience seemed to cost them – they weren’t able to slow down the game sufficiently and Brighton equalised then added two goals in injury time to win it.

Chelsea can have no complaints – they weren’t good enough in attack or defence, and they were outplayed at home by a team operating with a fraction of their budget.

Analysis

For a second game in a row, Chelsea’s fortunes hinged on a red card that really came out of nowhere. The Blues were on top, had scored a goal and were just getting into the second half where we were going to see whether they had another gear to go to.

They had chances in the first half to make it 2-0, and that would have put them in a very strong position. But as we’ve seen far too often, a youthful and nervy team missed chances and then started to crumble mentally. Santos and Chalobah gifted Brighton a huge chance and the away team took it. For a second week in a row Maresca shed all his attacking options as the game went on – at least this time he had a lead to protect

Teams

Chelsea

Robert Sanchez
Reece James
Trevoh Chalobah
Jorrel Hato
Marc Cucurella
Andrey Santos
Moises Caicedo
Enzo Fernandez
Estevao
Joao Pedro
Pedro Neto

Substitutes
Filip Jorgensen
Benoit Badiashile (s 79′)
Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
Malo Gusto (s 63′)
Tyrique George
Josh Acheampong (s 54′)
Marc Guiu
Romeo Lavia (s 79′)
Alejandro Garnacho

Brighton

Bart Verbruggen
Joel Veltman
Jan Paul van Hecke
Lewis Dunk
Ferdi Kadioglu
Carlos Baleba
Yasin Ayari
Yankuba Minteh
Diego Gomez
Kaoru Mitoma
Georginio Rutter

Substitutes
Jason Steele
Brajan Gruda (s 67′)
Stefanos Tzimas (s 85′)
Danny Welbeck (s 67′)
James Milner
Olivier Boscagli
Mats Wieffer (s 55′)
Maxim De Cuyper (s 85′)
Diego Coppola

Stats

Possession

- BRI: 43%
- CHE: 57%

Attempts

- BRI: 10
- CHE: 9

Off target

- BRI: 3
- CHE: 3

On target

- BRI: 9
- CHE: 3

Corners

- BRI: 5
- CHE: 7

Fouls

- BRI: 9
- CHE: 16

Quote of the game

“The message that we just said inside the dressing room was been quite clear: against any team in the Premier League you cannot continue to give away presents.” – Enzo Maresca post game.

This article first appeared on Chelsea News and was syndicated with permission.

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