Every word Enzo Maresca said on Chelsea 'giving away presents', Chalobah red card, Brighton loss

Enzo Maresca has just finished his post-match press conference following Chelsea's 3-1 defeat to Brighton at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues went 1-0 up against the Seagulls through Enzo Fernandez, but Trevoh Chalobah was shown a straight red card for a foul on Diego Gomez early into the second-half. Danny Welbeck equalised before Maxim De Cuyper put the visitors ahead in west London.

Welbeck then handed Brighton a two-goal cushion deep into stoppage time to add to a miserable afternoon for the Blues. Maresca has just taken his press conference to react to the defeat, and here is every word the Chelsea head coach had to say:

You must have felt like you were in total control of the match really until that 53rd minute, and then explain what happens and how the game changes...

Exactly, as you said, it's a tough one because we were in control of the game, we scored one, we scored more, we didn't concede nothing, they just said to me also in terms of data, we had so many shots in the first half, 70% of possession, everything was fine. And then suddenly, because of our mistake, and then with the red card, again, the plan completely changed. So for me we played two games, first-half, and then unfortunately after the red card.

Are you making life difficult for yourselves with these red cards? Any chance Axel Disasi comes back in?

No, for sure you cannot continue to make mistakes, also because they are big mistakes in terms of game changes, the red card at Manchester United and the red card today. Then after that we tried to adjust a little bit with Josh Acheampong coming on, and he was ill over the last week. Josh, in that moment, our two central defenders were Josh and Jorrel [Hato], that both are for sure fantastic players, fantastic talents, but not so many games in the Premier League, so when you are with 10 players it's a moment that you have to manage the situation.

And then the other one again, the same answer as yesterday, the club didn't mention me nothing, so there is not any news.

Did your team lose control? There was an incident with Benoit Badiashile and Lewis Dunk...

I didn't see that moment that you just mentioned, so I don't know if it's from Benoit or if it's from the Brighton player, I think also it's a matter of the momentum there, but I don't see this kind of thing as a consequence for the goal, a reason why we conceded the goal.

The message maybe is to not let yourself get wound up if things are going against you, that has to be a key message I would imagine...

The message that we just said inside has been quite clear: against any team in the Premier League you cannot continue to give away presents, because what we are doing in this moment is to give away presents in terms of red cards, that is a big mistake because the game completely changed.

Behdad Eghbali and the sporting directors went down to the tunnel post-match...

No, they have been inside the changing room like always, we have an office inside the changing room where after every game we sit and talk about the game, but they didn't say nothing to the players, it was nothing, completely different compared to the rest of the team.

You made defensive subs. Was there any temptation to bring on attacking players?

Yes, we did the first change that was Josh for the red card for Andrey [Santos], because we needed a central defender, then the reason why Malo [Gusto] came on was just because Minteh was many times one-v-one with Reece, so we tried to give Reece help in that situation to defend the two-v-one. And then the last change, Jorrel was asking for a change because he had cramp.

Why are you making these mistakes?

For sure we need to learn, and we need to learn quick, so the reason why it can be a mix of experience or a mix of simple mistakes, then in terms of injury, I think that if you just watch first-half today, you don't think about the injured players, because first-half again we were in control, dominating the game, and then, again, I would like to tell you something different, but at the end it's the reality of the last two games, unfortunately with two red cards everything changed.