EPL: Chelsea suffer another blow against Brighton

Things are falling apart for Chelsea as their unconvincing form continued; managing just a 1-1 draw at Brighton.

This means their winless run stretched to four Premier League games following Tuesday's stalemate.

Hakim Ziyech fired the European champions into a first-half lead at the Amex Stadium with a low strike against the run of play.

But the third-placed Blues were second best for much of the evening and could have few complaints about stand-in Seagulls skipper Adam Webster levelling with a thumping 60th-minute header.

Chelsea topped the table as recently as the start of last month but have spectacularly fallen out of title contention having now won just two of their nine top-flight outings since.

Thomas Tuchel’s men struggled for cohesion and fluidity throughout their visit to Sussex, with record signing Romelu Lukaku once again ineffectual before being withdrawn 10 minutes from time.

The out-of-sorts Blues, who suffered a damaging weekend loss at leaders on Manchester City, are now 12 points adrift of top spot, having also played a game more.

Indeed, the west London club may soon be looking over their shoulders as the plethora of recent postponements have left top-four rivals Arsenal and Tottenham with a number of games in hand in the battle for Champions League qualification.

High-flying Brighton remain ninth following their 11th draw of a campaign in which they have lost just four times in the league