Brighton Dumps Chelsea Out Of FA Cup
Brighton came from behind to cause an FA Cup upset against Chelsea at the Amex Stadium, with Kaoru Mitoma’s winner sending the Seagulls through to the fifth round.
Bouncing back from last week’s 7-0 Premier League defeat to Nottingham Forest, Fabian Hurzeler’s team were generally good value for their win, which ended Enzo Maresca’s hopes of winning a domestic cup in his first season with Chelsea.
Chelsea went ahead in fortuitous circumstances after just five minutes. Cole Palmer found space to drill a cross-shot in from the left, and Verbruggen inexplicably spilled it into his net for an own goal.
But Brighton only needed seven further minutes to hit back, Georginio Rutter heading Joel Veltman’s weighted cross into the bottom-left corner.
Palmer missed Chelsea’s best chance to restore their lead before half-time, sending a header onto the roof of the net after Christopher Nkunku elected to pass when he could have gone for goal.
Brighton completed the turnaround in the 57th minute, Mitoma taking in Rutter’s delightful dinked pass then prodding past former Seagulls goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Brighton, meanwhile, move into Monday’s fifth-round draw ending their mini-slump of back-to-back Premier League defeats – though Chelsea can get revenge next week, as these two are reunited on Valentine’s Day.
