Liam Rosenior fighting for his future as gutless Chelsea embarrassed by Brighton

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There is a tipping point in every manager’s reign. And just three months into his reign, it feels like Liam Rosenior will do well to survive after this.

This was humiliating, gutless and when the fans turn in such brutal fashion then there is often no way back. The traveling Chelsea fans were chanting “f*** off Rosenior” as they also made their feelings plain towards co-owner Behdad Eghbali who was sat up in the stands.

This is a club which feels like it has lost its soul and is in serious danger of imploding without Champions League football next season which already looks beyond them.

Incredibly, this was the first time Chelsea have lost five league games in a row without scoring a goal since 1912. That was the year the Titanic sunk - and Chelsea are going down just as fast.

The Chelsea soap opera always provides a story and this time Marc Cucurella’s barber leaked the team news on social media that Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer were out injured.

But even a mix-and-match Chelsea team should show more pride than this. It was downright embarrassing and sadly reflects badly on the manager because the players did not show much fight.

They were run ragged by Brighton and the only relief was that Fabian Hurzeler’s side did not score more goals which would have only increased the pressure on Rosenior.

The home fans were even chanting Rosenior’s name themselves as he used to play for Brighton and that just rubbed salt in the wounds.

Chelsea’s season is drifting towards chaos and, even with four games left, the owners are left with a tough decision.

You have to feel some sympathy for Rosenior because he is a good young coach, an honourable person and could not have turned the job down.

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But it has left him exposed in trying to run a basket case of a club who have spent more than £1billion on the team - and it still looks a complete mess.

Brighton were ahead inside three minutes. Man of the match Pascal Gross sent over and corner, it was flicked on and there was Ferdi Kadioglu to drove home his first goal in 17 months.

Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez kept his team in it. But he made yet another error as his pass went straight to Carlos Baleba who laid it off to Jack Hinshelwood who seemed certain to score but fit-again Trevoh Chalobah made a heroic last ditch clearance.

Rosenior had switched to a back three - only the second time in his reign - but he abandoned that at half time as Alejandro Garnacho came on for Wesley Fofana. But they looked vulnerable in defence and toothless in attack.

But for all of Brighton’s superiority, they had to wait for a second. It came after 56 minutes. Chelsea appealed in vain when the ball hit Yankuba Minteh’s arm but referee Craig Pawson waved it away.

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Georginio Rutter led the charge, he laid the ball off for Hinshelwood and the Brighton midfielder swept home to make the result safe.

The Chelsea fans grew even more frustrated as their chants off “f*** off Rosenior got even louder as the night wore on and the crisis engulfing the club deepened.

Finally Brighton got a third which was no more than they deserved as supersub Danny Welbeck steered in from close range.

Rosenior appears to be out of his depth and Chelsea’s experiment - gambling on a rookie manager in charge of a team which was crowned world champions last year - looks to be backfiring.

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