Former Arsenal and Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck scored a equaliser for Brighton at Stamford Bridge, to deal another blow to Chelsea’s fading Premier League title hopes.
Welbeck headed home in second-half stoppage time to cancel out Romelu Lukaku’s first-half goal and seal a deserved share of the spoils.
Though a point was enough to see Chelsea leapfrog Liverpool into second place in the table following the Reds’ defeat by Leicester, they could end the night eight adrift of Manchester City, who lead at Brentford in Wednesday’s later kick-off as at the time of writing this report.
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Chelsea made four changes from their much-needed Boxing Day victory at Aston Villa as Lukaku and Mateo Kovacic came in for their first league starts since October.
Captain Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen replaced Trevoh Chalobah and the injured Thiago Silva in defence, with N’Golo Kante and Kai Havertz deemed fit enough for the bench.
Chelsea’s injury woes returned as Reece James – starting at left wing-back in an experiment with Ben Chilwell now ruled out for the rest of the season after knee surgery – went down in considerable pain following a hamstring injury.
James was replaced by Marcos Alonso, with Christensen also hobbling until half-time, when he had to make way for Chalobah.
