EPL: Brighton punish 10-man Chelsea with stoppage-time comeback

Brighton & Hove Albion pulled off a dramatic late comeback to defeat Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, taking full advantage of Trevoh Chalobah’s second-half dismissal.

Second-half substitutes Danny Welbeck and Maxim de Cuyper struck in stoppage time to complete the turnaround, after Chalobah was shown a straight red card in the 53rd minute.

Chelsea had appeared in control during the first half, when Enzo Fernández opened the scoring with a deflected header from Reece James’s cross. But the match swung after Kaoru Mitoma dispossessed debutant Andrey Santos, prompting Chalobah’s rash challenge on Georginio Rutter. Following a lengthy VAR review, the defender was sent off, a week after goalkeeper Robert Sánchez had also seen red in the Blues’ defeat to Manchester United.

Brighton capitalised immediately, with Welbeck heading in the equaliser at the far post in the 77th minute. The momentum carried into stoppage time, as De Cuyper nodded home from a corner in the 92nd minute before Welbeck added his second from close range seven minutes later to seal a famous win.

The result leaves Chelsea in seventh place, still searching for their first league victory since the international break, with Liverpool set to visit West London next. Brighton’s spirited display lifts them into 10th, further cementing their reputation for troubling the Premier League’s traditional heavyweights.