Trevoh Chalobah’s second half red card saw Chelsea turn a one-goal lead into a 3–1 defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
After a disastrous start to their last Premier League game away at Manchester United, Chelsea came out for this one with far more composure and looked destined to seal a simple victory.
Enzo Fernández was first to test Bart Verbruggen, stinging the Brighton stopper’s gloves with a sweetly struck free kick inside the first three minutes.
Marc Cucurella, playing the role of pantomime villain against his former employers, fizzed wide soon after and Reece James drew another impressive save from distance as Chelsea continued to pile on the pressure in a dominant first 15 minutes.
The lead finally came 25 minutes in. James’s cross took a wicked deflection and looped up over to the back post, where Fernández was unmarked to head home into an empty net.
Brighton did offer up some threat in the first half, particularly through Yankuba Minteh down the right wing, but the Seagulls offered little to nothing in terms of end product as Chelsea retained 70% possession and outshot their opponents 9–0 in a comfortable first 45.
The tone change drastically at the start of the second half. A James injury scare in the opening stages was followed by a red card for Chalobah, penalised for denying a goalscoring opportunity just five minutes after the restart after a poor touch from Andrey Santos played his teammate into all sorts of trouble.
Unsurprisingly, Chelsea’s control on the game faded soon after. A midfielder and a winger were sacrificed for two new defenders as Enzo Maresca clearly made a clean sheet his priority, but hearts were in mouths as Danny Welbeck’s volleyed effort bounced wide of goal.
Welbeck made no mistake a few moments later, steering home a header with 13 minutes to go to set up a nervy conclusion to the game.
Brighton saw a last-minute penalty claim waved away by VAR and a scuffle involving a number of players from both sides summed up the tension with which this game ended.
But Chelsea could not hold on as Maxim De Cuyper headed beyond Robert Sánchez in the 92nd minute to complete a comeback which was capped off by another Welbeck strike deeper into stoppage time.
