Chelsea boss Maresca fumes at ‘worst performance since I arrived’ v Brighton: ‘Sorry for the fans’

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca says his side’s performance in their 3-0 defeat at Brighton was the “worst since I arrived”.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side comfortably beat the Blues in the Premier League on Friday night, five days after knocking them out of the FA Cup.

Kaoru Mitoma scored an outstanding opener before a Yankuba Minteh brace to lift Brighton up to eighth in the Premier League.

Chelsea were very, very poor on the night and Maresca did not shy away from that fact.

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He told Sky Sports: “This result the frustration is about everything. For sure, we feel really sorry for the fans that come here and the moment that we are in the position we are in, we need to do much better than what we have done tonight.

“I think in terms of controlling the game or keeping the ball we did that. But I said before the game when you don’t have a nine who can be a threat we need to find different solutions. It is not only about chances.

“There are many things we have to do better. We still have many games to go and we are still in a good position. We need to do our best and try to finish in the best way.

“We are in a moment when we feel we can concede easily and struggle to score. I think before the goal they didn’t have some chances. There are many things we can do better.

“It is not only mentally. When you play these games in the moment we are, where you can make the gap bigger to the ones behind us and you perform like we did tonight, there are many things that we need to do better.

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“I feel sorry for the fans. It is not the right performance that we can offer, especially at this moment in the season. We need to stick together.

“I feel pressure always. We are tonight the performance was the worst since I arrived so it is not the right moment but we are still in fourth and in the race to finish in Europe.”

Maresca later added to BBC Sport that Chelsea missed an opportunity to strengthen their grip on the race for Champions League qualification.

“Probably since I arrived that is the worst performance, especially in the moment we are in,” the Italian said.

“We are fourth in the league and winning tonight you can go one point from third and make the gap to the rest bigger and the performance is not one you want to offer so we are very upset and sorry for the fans that were here.

“For half an hour I think we were in control but after this moment [Mitoma’s goal] we looked like we could concede chances easily and we struggled to create chances. The reason why is because of the injuries in this moment especially with the strikers…important players are out but we need to find a solution.

“It is difficult when you don’t have a proper number nine. So you always have to find a different solution. In the last third we struggled doing things that until a week or two ago we were doing well.

“This is the worst moment since I arrived but we are still there and we need to finish in the best way.”

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