Chelsea's night of shrugs and socks:A total Brighton beatdown

Liam Rosenior has hit rock bottom. After watching his Chelsea side get dismantled 3-0 by Brighton, the manager walked over to the away end and apologized. Right there on the pitch. Meanwhile, Enzo Fernandez wearing the captain's armband despite all those "I want to join another club" whispers just shrugged his shoulders at the same fans.

The away end responded the only way it could: a flag reading "We Want Blue co Out" appeared, with co-owner Behdad Eghbali sitting right there in the crowd. This, just one week after Eghbali said, "We think Rosenior can be successful long term."

On the pitch, it was even worse.

Two minutes in, Kaoru Mitoma forced Robert Sanchez into a save, and you just knew how the night would go. Chelsea's players took 32 minutes to complete their first tackle. Thirty two. By halftime, ten of the eleven starters hadn't made a single one.

Here's the brutal pattern: Chelsea have been out run by every single Premier League opponent this season. All 34 matches. Yes, they keep the ball a lot especially under Enzo Maresca so they're not supposed to win the running race every week. But look at the teams around them on that "most outrun" list. Every single one is underperforming. Chelsea are no exception. They could end this week in the bottom half of the table.

Rosenior called his team's habits "indefensible, unprofessional and unacceptable." But Trevoh Chalobah saw it differently.

"I think the boys were running their socks off," the center back said. "Everyone is tired. It's nothing to do with effort. We gave it our all."

Brighton ran seven kilometers more than Chelsea on Tuesday. Seven. So if Chelsea were truly running their socks off, what were Brighton doing? Sprinting barefoot on hot coals?

Even Rosenior couldn't spin that one. "Judging off that performance, it looks that way," he admitted. "I won't lie, that was unacceptable. I don't feel there's a disconnect between me and the players... but there is a lack of spirit, lack of belief."

Then there's the attack. Four Premier League games without a goal is bad enough. But to not even register a shot on target in the fifth? Their first-half expected goals (xG) was 0.04. That's lower than any half Maresca ever managed at Chelsea. Think about how far backwards they've gone.

Injuries? Sure, no Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro, or Estevao. But this is a billion pound squad. Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho, Liam Delap these aren't academy kids.

Rosenior tried a desperate 5-3-2 formation for the first time in the league, then switched back to 4-2-3-1 at halftime. It looked exactly as panicked as it sounds.

Tim Sherwood summed it up: "It's a really tough job for any manager to survive this environment. Chelsea is a development club."

And here's the cruel irony: Brighton battered them. The same Brighton that Chelsea's ownership has tried so hard to copy. They hired Brighton's sporting director Paul Winstanley. They poached players and staff. Rosenior is the second former Brighton figure to take the reins after Graham Potter. They even copied the "trust the youth" model.

Then they got hammered home and away by the very club they're trying to become.

The ultimate shame. Chelsea tried to rebuild and got it all wrong. Now they desperately need to change course again.