It was a case of already seen for Chelsea and Enzo Maresca as they collapse once again to defeat after a red card, this time by returning a lead in the first half in a 3-1 home defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Blues had paid the price of the early dismissal of Robert Sanchez in a Trafford Sodden Old Trafford last week by losing 2-1 against Manchester United.
This time, Chelsea had at least one advance to protect when Trevor Chalobah was sent for a fault on Diego Gomez in the 53rd minute, Enzo Fernandez having given them a 24th minute lead.
But Chelsea failed to take up the challenge of doing so, Danny Welbeck to restore parity in the 72nd minute before Maxim de Cuyper sends travel fans in Delirium 20 minutes later.
Welbeck doubled his count in the 10th minute of the time of downtime while Brighton moved in the upper half and the level on points with Chelsea placed in the seventh, whose hopes of seriously difficult for the title are already whimsical.
Chelsea in Brighton
Bert Verbruggen was occupied in the first minutes, keeping the free kicks of Enzo and Reece James, before Jan Paul Van Hecke saved what was a certain goal after Joao Pedro played in a selfless manner in Estevao.
But Chelsea took a deserved advance in the 24th minute when Enzo hosted her head at close range of the diverted right of James.
Chelsea failed to rely on their advance, and there was a turning point in the eight -minute competition in the second half when Chalobah saw the red for having dropped Gomez by the area with the Paraguayan by the goal.
Referee Simon Hooper initially moved away from the claims of Brighton players, but a trip to Var Pitchsoid Monitor saw him reverse his decision and reject Chalobah, although Gomez can do nothing with the following free kick.
Yankuba Minteh approached while Brighton continued in the ascendant, with Brighton more frustrated when Welbeck stole little accuracy from the left post in the 72nd minute after the Van Hecke blocked shot fell on his way.
Welbeck, however, expired for his debauchery five minutes later when Minteh went left and whipped a perfect crossing in the box so that the former striker of England returns home from the chain at close range.
Brighton continued to stack the pressure and finally he said that the superb delivery of Yasin Ayari to the most distant post was raised through the goal of Mats Wieffer for Cuyper to acquiesce and finish the turnaround.
This objective came in the second of an additional 11 minutes, and Chelsea never threatened to enjoy enough time to answer, Welbeck adding a brilliant to the score when he raised in his second after Brighton’s press harassed Chelsea to lose possession to crown another difficult day for Maresca.
