Chelsea have been knocked out of the FA Cup at the fourth round stage after losing to Brighton despite taking an early lead.
Chelsea were in front after five minutes thanks to a nightmare moment for Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen.
Cole Palmer latched onto Jadon Sancho’s pass and fizzed the ball into the middle, but Verbruggen somehow spilled it over his own goal-line and was duly credited with an own goal after some really poor goalkeeping.
Perhaps fearing the worst after conceding seven goals away at Nottingham Forest, the Seagulls produced a great response.
Seven minutes later they were on level terms as Georginio Rutter found some space in between Trevoh Chalobah and Tosin Adarabioyo to meet Joel Veltman's brilliant cross and flick a header into the far corner.
The game then turned rather scrappy with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Rutter and Veltman shown yellow cards before the visitors ought to have restored their lead. Christopher Nkunku unselfishly squared for Palmer when clean through but the attacking midfielder could only loop a header onto the top of the net.
Brighton completed the turnaround just before the hour mark thanks to a superb finish from Kaoru Mitoma.
The winger collected pass from Ruttter and flicked the ball over Robert Sanchez and into the net, beyond the stretch of Marc Cucurella to give the hosts a deserved lead.
Though, there were some Chelsea fans were claiming a handball against former academy product Tariq Lamptey in the build up, but with no use of VAR in the FA Cup until the fifth round, the goal stood.
Enzo Fernandez had the visitors best chance for an equaliser but snatched with his shot inside the area and with that the Blues bowed out of the FA Cup at the fourth round stage.
