1. KEPA ARRIZABALAGA (6.7)

A few decent individual performances saved this game from becoming an all-timer in terms of futility, chief among them being Captain(!) Kepa.

Kepa’s short-comings have been well documented over the years, and some of those he can’t change or do much about. But in this game, wherein Chelsea gave up the most shots to a visiting team in a Premier League match since such statistics started getting tracked 20 years ago, he was the only one stopping this from becoming a truly embarrassing defeat.

Admittedly, that’s a pretty low bar to clear, but the bar has been lowered quite a bit this season. Kepa remains third in the league in terms of preventing expected goals, behind Alisson, who’s in a class of his own, and Bernd Leno, and also third in save percentage, behind Neto and Bernd Leno once again.

2. CONOR GALLAGHER (5.9)

Got a bit of luck with the looping deflection for our goal, but at least he took the shot.

Gallagher then also collected a fairly harsh yellow because a) he’s Gallagher and b) because the referee was easily influenced by various bits of embellishment, but I love his all-action style. He’s one player who will never get accused of not giving it his all.

3. MYKHAILO MUDRYK (5.8)

And speaking of lowering the bar, here is arguably Mudryk’s best performance in a Chelsea shirt yet — not his highest rated, but his first start for us where he’s significantly outperformed the squad’s average rating in a game.

Brighton head coach Roberto De Zerbi singled out Mudryk as a dangerman prior to the match, and Misha indeed looked a bit more inspired than usual playing in front of his former coach at Shakhtar Donetsk.

Mudryk was also credited with the assist on our goal, which gives him two on the (league) season and thus ties him for the team lead(!) in that category. Yikes.

vs. BRIGHTON (PL, H, L 1-2)

EXCEPTIONAL (9.0+): —

EXCELLENT (8.0-8.9): —

GOOD (7.0-7.9): —

AVERAGE (6.0-6.9): Arrizabalaga (6.7)

POOR (5.0-5.9): Gallagher (5.9), Mudryk (5.8)

BAD (4.0-4.9): Enzo (4.9), Chilwell (4.8), W.Fofana (4.6), Badiashile (4.3), Kovačić (4.2, sub), James (4.2, sub)

TERRIBLE (3.0-3.9): Mount (3.9, sub), Ziyech (3.3, sub), Pulisic (3.3), Zakaria (3.2), Chalobah (3.1), Félix (3.1, sub)

WTF (1.0-2.9): Sterling (2.5)

OVERALL