Julio Enciso seals Brighton fightback to pile more misery on Chelsea

Brighton were brilliant. They were faster than Chelsea, stronger than Chelsea, slicker than Chelsea, more coherent than Chelsea and more inventive than Chelsea. They were almost embarrassingly the better side. As their pursuit of Europa League football goes on, so too does Chelsea’s bewildered misery. That’s 11 defeats in his last 12 games now for Frank Lampard as a manager and seven in his last 10 league games with Chelsea. And now he has to inspire a comeback from 2-0 down against Real Madrid. Good luck.

That it took until the 70th minute for Brighton to take the lead was down to Kepa Arrizabalaga making three outstanding saves, Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso hitting the woodwork, Alexis Mac Allister being deadly only from the penalty spot and Danny Welbeck, with the entire goal to aim at, flashing an admittedly sharp rebound over. But their excellence did tell in the end with a stunning winner, Enciso wandering through Chelsea’s midfield before pinging a 25-yard strike into the top corner. The Paraguayan is 19 and cost £9.5m from the Asunción club Libertad. Brighton, masters of the cleverly sourced bargain, may have done it again.

Sometimes narratives clang together with a boom of inevitability. Brighton, having hammered Brentford yet only drawn, having been on the wrong end of four key VAR decisions at Tottenham last week, have recently developed a reputation as the unluckiest team in the Premier League. Conor Gallagher is the most Lampard-like player in the current Chelsea side, so when, a couple of minutes after Ferguson had hit the bar, a shot deflected off Lewis Dunk and looped past Robert Sánchez, it was always going to be from Gallagher.

Decisions continued to go against Brighton with Christian Pulisic mysteriously unpunished for what looked a blatant handball as he chased a bouncing ball with Pervis Estupiñan. As Roberto De Zerbi plaintively drew squares in the air in his technical area, the Brighton fans chanted: “The Premier League is corrupt.” Normally the paranoia of fans is risibly solipsistic, but it’s easy to understand why Brighton supporters feel aggrieved.

Eventually, though, the pressure will tell even for the most unfortunate side. Chelsea struggled to get through Brighton’s press. Moisés Caicedo was superb at regaining possession. Kaoru Mitoma was brilliant at using it. Eventually they had their reward. Pascal Groß, shifted to right-back after an injury to Joël Veltman, crossed for Welbeck, on for Ferguson after he suffered an ankle injury, to nod an equaliser. The changes worked to their advantage and hint at how well-organised Brighton are, but with the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United coming up next week those potential absences are of particular concern.

Danny Welbeck levels the scores. Photograph: Nigel Keene/ProSports/Shutterstock

Given there was no sign the dressing room had turned on Graham Potter – drifted away from him, perhaps, started to harbour vague doubts, maybe, but despised him, no – the only possible explanation for Chelsea parting ways with him when they did was that they believed they had somebody more likely to beat Madrid in the Champions League. And if no less an authority than James Corden believes Frank Lampard to be that manager, who really can argue?

But you do wonder why Lampard has made no attempt to use either of his two league games in charge to prepare for Real Madrid. The 4-3-3 he used against Wolves last week returned, although this was a starting XI featuring only five of the same starters as at Molineux, and only five starters from Wednesday’s tepid defeat at the Bernabéu. Take the pieces, throw them in the air, let them fall where they may.

When Lampard made a quadruple substitution in the 57th minute, it was hard to know whether it was desperation or an exercise in managing minutes before Tuesday’s second leg.

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That confusion perhaps in part explained what a shambles this was for Chelsea. But then shambles is the Todd Boehly way. Whatever Lampard’s shortcomings as a manager the situation is, if not impossible, then not far off.

Chelsea are like you’ve bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw only to find there are 2,500 pieces in the box and it’s the wrong picture on the cover. It doesn’t matter if some of the extra pieces are gold-plated or studded with diamonds, it’s still a confusing mess.