Danny Welbeck’s brace sinks 10-man Chelsea

Chelsea tasted defeat for the first time at Stamford Bridge in 2025 as Brighton completed a second-half comeback to win 3-1 against the Blues.

The West Londoners started the game on a strong foot when Enzo Fernandez called Bart Verbruggen into action as he palmed away the Argentine strike from a free-kick.

Reece James also came close to giving Chelsea the lead from a free-kick after the ball was rolled to his path by Pedro Neto, but the captain’s effort, heading towards the top corner, was saved brilliantly by Verbruggen.

The visitors soon got chances as Yankuba Minteh’s cross and a whipped-in free kick were not met by any Brighton player.

24 minutes into the game, the Seagulls were punished after a deflected James cross was headed in at the back post by Fernandez to give the host the deserved lead.

Five minutes after the break, trouble was spelt for Chelsea as a bad back pass from Andrey Santos set Diego Gomez through on goal, who was brought down at the edge of the box by Trevoh Chalobah, and the defender was sent off after VAR intervention.

The Seagulls finally made a man advantage count as substitute Danny Welbeck tied the score with a close-range header in the 77th minute.

Brighton appealed for a penalty after Malo Gusto’s boot appeared to have made contact with Minteh’s head inside the penalty area, but referee Simon Hooper and the VAR waved away the incident.

Maxim De Cuyper put the visitors ahead from a corner after Mats Wieffer headed back across goal for the Brighton man to nod past Robert Sanchez.

Chelsea appealed for a penalty minutes later after James skipped past Minteh and made his way into the box, where he went down under a challenge, but the referee immediately waved away the appeals.

In the closing stages of the 11 minutes of additional time, Welbeck got his second of the evening and Brighton’s third after he intercepted Josh Acheampong’s pass to strike past Sanchez.

The Blues return to midweek action on Tuesday as they host Benfica in the Champions League.