Jason Cundy has labelled Chelsea’s 3-0 Premier League defeat to Brighton as the ‘worst performance’ he has ever seen from his former side. The Blues were completely outplayed away to Brighton, with goals from Ferdi Kadioglu, Jack Hinshelwood and Danny Welbeck dealing a severe blow to their hopes of Champions League qualification.
Chelsea have now lost five league games without scoring a goal for the first time since 1912 and are seven points off Liverpool in fifth place with only four games remaining. Vocal chants from the away fans called for manager Liam Rosenior to be sacked in the second half, despite the Englishman only replacing Enzo Maresca four months ago.
Cundy’s scathing assessment
Speaking on talkSPORT, the former Chelsea defender did not hold back in his analysis. ‘That was disgusting, absolutely disgusting. I am ashamed of that performance tonight. Absolutely ashamed. It’s gutless. They absolutely battered us. They embarrassed us. At 2-0, I’m thinking the scoreline just doesn’t do it justice. And at 3-0, it still doesn’t.’
Cundy criticised the team’s shape, saying: ‘The shape of the team, when they’re five at the back, wow, that just didn’t work. You saw that after about seven minutes. Could not get out of our box. Couldn’t get out of our half. Brighton, it was like a training game for them. First half, I don’t know what that was. That was absolutely turgid. Disgusting. And do you know what? It’s getting worse. Brighton are a good side, but that is unacceptable.’
He added: ‘I think it’s the worst performance I’ve ever seen, and I’ve played in a few. I can’t think of a worse performance than that. I genuinely can’t. I cannot think of a worse gutless spineless performance.’
FA Cup semi-final in doubt
Chelsea’s only victory in their last eight matches in all competitions came in the FA Cup quarter-final against struggling League One side Port Vale. However, Cundy does not hold much hope for the upcoming FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United at Wembley. ‘Do you know what? We got Leeds at the weekend. And I’m telling you now, we ain’t winning that game. We are not winning that game. We’re getting dumped out the FA Cup. I don’t know where the next victory is going to come from. I don’t know where the next shot on target is going to come from. Absolutely disgusted.’
Rosenior’s reaction
Speaking post-match, an equally infuriated Rosenior pointed the finger at his players for what he described as an ‘unacceptable’ performance. ‘For the fans, honestly, apologise, that’s unacceptable. I will defend the players when they deserve to be defended. Three or four of them gave everything, I’m not going to name names but three or four is not good enough. I have my own ideas about what needs to happen at this club moving forward. All I can do at the moment is apologise to the fans for what we put in today.’
