Brighton 3-0 Chelsea: Minteh brace & Mitoma stunner inflict misery on Maresca's Blues | OneFootball

Chelsea produced another disappointing performance as they fell to a 3-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.

Head coach Enzo Maresca was unable to get a reaction from his Blues side who were knocked out of the FA Cup by Brighton last week as they suffered back-to-back defeat to the Seagulls in the space of six days, both at the Amex.

Back to the drawing board now for Chelsea, who could fall out of the top four places should results elsewhere go against them this weekend, with Manchester City, Newcastle and Bournemouth all within three points of the Blues.

After a promising start, which saw Chelsea fail to capitalise on a couple of half chances, Enzo Maresca's side were handed another injury blow. Noni Madueke was forced off after 20 minutes with a hamstring problem to add to the visitors' problems.

Brighton were looking to build on their FA Cup win over the Blues and Kaoru Mitoma produced a first touch of gold to open the scoring for the Seagulls. A long ball from goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen landed at the feet of the Japan international, who brought it down with an exquisite touch, drove towards goal and slotted it past Filip Jorgensen to put the hosts ahead.

Their lead quickly doubled 11 minutes later through Yankuba Minteh, who eventually found the back of the net after some pinball inside the Chelsea box. Maresca's side did have a goal ruled out two minutes prior due to Enzo Fernandez being penalised for a push in the back on Joël Veltman.

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Chelsea offered little threat to Brighton's goal and another defensive mess saw Minteh net his second of the game in the 63rd minute to make it game, set and match for Fabian Hurzeler's side.

Joao Pedro should have punished Chelsea further after a mistake from Jorgensen, but it had no impact on the result down on the south coast. Maresca's side got what they deserved - absolutely zilch.

Brighton, who suffered a 7-0 defeat last time out in the league to Nottingham Forest, bounced back to quieten their critics with consecutive wins over Chelsea.

Meanwhile, the Blues have plenty to ponder with their recognised attacking threat of Nicolas Jackson and understudy Marc Guiu sidelined until at least April. They offered little to no threat in both fixtures against Brighton and Maresca will have to find a way if he wants to steer Chelsea back to winning ways.

But it doesn't get easier for Chelsea. They travel to Champions League chasing Aston Villa next weekend and if they produce the performances they have done against Brighton, it will be the same outcome.