Chelsea’s season slumped deeper into crisis after a 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Tuesday left its hopes of Champions League qualification hanging by a thread.
The result leaves Chelsea seventh in the Premier League and seven points adrift of fifth place Liverpool having played a game more.
The top five qualify for the Champions League, but with just four more rounds of the season to go, Chelsea is on the verge of being cut adrift.
Goals from Ferdi Kadioglu, Jack Hinshelwood and Danny Welbeck at the AMEX Stadium did not reflect Brighton’s dominance on the night. Victory saw it leapfrog Chelsea and move up to sixth in the standings and boosted its own pursuit of European soccer next season.
It was a seventh loss in Chelsea’s last eight games in all competitions. The team that was crowned Club World Cup champion less than a year ago has won only one of its last nine in the league and failed to score in each of the last five.
While it has an FA Cup semifinal against Leeds on Sunday, its campaign has unraveled in recent weeks, including elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
Chelsea — a team that cost in excess of $1 billion to assemble — is now left facing up to the likelihood of missing out on the lucrative Champions League.
The decision to let go of Club World Cup-winning coach Enzo Marcesca in January now looks like a costly one, with his replacement Liam Rosenior overseeing the team’s slide.
According the league’s official stats provider Opta, Chelsea’s five-game Premier League losing streak without a goal is its worst run since 1912 — the same year the Titanic sank.
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