Chelsea player ratings as Christopher Nkunku, Malo Gusto and three others shocking vs Brighton

Chelsea have been knocked out of the FA Cup at the fourth round stage after throwing away a one-goal lead away at Brighton.

With just five minutes on the clock, Cole Palmer opened the scoring. It is one of those that could later go down as an own goal with Bart Verbruggen making a howler but for the purpose of this article, we will give it to the Blues’ No.20.

The visitors, however, were not ahead for long with Georginio Rutter’s header levelling the match just seven minutes later. In the second-half, Kaoru Mitoma put Brighton ahead after a mix-up at the back from the Blues.

Another below-par display from Chelsea as they crash out of the FA Cup – with the UEFA Conference League now being their only realistic chance of a trophy this season. And here, football.london rate the Chelsea players out of 10 based on their performance down on a chilly south coast.

Robert Sanchez – 5

Nothing he could do about Rutter’s goal – he was let down by his defenders there. Dinked for Mitoma’s. His distribution was not up to par. Not good enough.

Malo Gusto – 4

Not sure what’s happened to him recently. Such a promising debut season with the club last time out but has been below-par for most of the campaign.

Tosin Adarabioyo – 4

He’s got the vision of Rutter finding the space for his goal. He, along with Trevoh Chalobah – who we will get on to in a second – need to communicate better.

Trevoh Chalobah – 5

Allowed Rutter too much space inside the box for his goal. Did okay apart from that, but a lack of communication ultimately cost Chelsea.

Marc Cucurella – 6

Public enemy number one. He was solid. Offered a threat going forward while doing a decent job defensively.

Moises Caicedo – 6

And public enemy number two. You don’t normally associate the midfielder with his passing but it was good this evening.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – 5

Constantly makes dangerous runs in behind but very rarely found by his teammates. Unable to get too involved, though, and was hooked before the hour-mark with a booking.

Pedro Neto – 4

Had a good moment in the first-half where he rolled Tariq Lamptey but then let himself down with the final pass. Did not do anywhere near enough after that.

Cole Palmer – 6

His volley forced a terrible mistake from Verbruggen and gave Chelsea an early lead. Pretty quiet apart from that, though.

Jadon Sancho – 5

Created a couple of openings in the first-half. Non-existent in the second.

Christopher Nkunku – 4

Created a chance for Palmer in the first-half but he should have shot himself. He drops too deep – I guess that is what Enzo Maresca means when he says he is not a natural No.9.