Chelsea boss Graham Potter’s return to his former club Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday turned into a disaster as Chelsea lost 4-1 to Brighton, enduring their most disappointing defeat in the league so far.
Things were so bad for Potter’s Chelsea that his team went down by 3-0 before halftime. One goal by Leandro Trossard in the 14th minute put Brighton ahead. Their lead increased when Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus Cheek and Trevor Chalobah scored one own goal each.
Chelsea came close to scoring in the first half when midfielder Christian Pulisic came up with a great chance. However, the chance went for nothing as Pulisic placed the shot wide off the target.
Things were so bad for Chelsea at one point that Brighton fans started chanting “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to their beloved former manager Potter.
Chelsea, however, turned the game around as soon as the first half began but failed to recover after going behind by three goals. Kai Havertz scored the only goal for Chelsea in the 48th minute. While Brighton padded up their lead with an injury-time goal by Pascal Gross.
As it turned out, the win on Saturday was the Seagull’s first victory under new head coach Roberto De Zerbi and first over Chelsea since 1933.
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“The responsibility for those two wasn’t to defend against their wing-backs, but I understand that whenever you do something and it doesn’t work you look a bit of a fool,” Potter said at the post-match press conference. “That is how it is. I have to accept that, deal with that, do better, and I’ll learn. That’s the process.”
Speaking about Brighton’s performance, Potter said: “I have nothing to say sorry for or apologise for. I did a good job, you can see the team is a good team. I took over when they were fourth from bottom in the Premier League and were probably the third-worst team.”
“There is a lot of money raised in terms of player sales and a lot of good players on the pitch. I hope for their sake, the next managers do as good a job,” he added
