The Blues were in full control during the opening 45 minutes of today's encounter at Stamford Bridge. We posed a consistent threat in the Brighton half and deservedly went ahead when a Reece James cross deflected perfectly for Enzo Fernandez to head home.

However, five minutes after the restart, a poor back pass enabled Diego Gomez to break through on goal and he went down under pressure from Trevoh Chalobah.

Play continued before referee Simon Hooper was advised to review the incident by VAR. After a lengthy process, it was deemed that Chalobah had denied a clear goalscoring opportunity and was dismissed.

With almost an entire half left to play, it was an uphill battle for the Blues. And Brighton eventually made their man advantage count, equalising through Danny Welbeck before netting twice in stoppage time. Maxim De Cuyper put the Seagulls ahead before Welbeck rounded off the scoring.

'It’s a tough one as we were in control of the game, we scored one and could’ve scored more,' reflected Maresca in his post-match press conference.

'We didn’t concede anything and in terms of the data, we had so many shots in the first half and had 70 per cent possession. Everything was fine. Then, because of our mistake with the red card, the plan completely changed.

'So, for me, we played two games: the one in the first half and then, unfortunately, another after the red card.'

The Blues have now been reduced to ten players in back-to-back Premier League matches. Robert Sanchez was sent off against Manchester United last weekend and Chalobah, while unfortunate, suffered the same fate this afternoon.

And Maresca accepts that his side cannot continue to play significant proportions of top-flight matches a man down and expect to get results.

'Against any team in the Premier League, you can’t continue to give away presents, because at this moment we are giving presents with red cards,' the Blues head coach explained.

‘You cannot continue to make mistakes because they are big, game-changing mistakes; the red card against Manchester United and the red card today.'

The Blues were without several players against Brighton due to injury, but Maresca said that was not a factor in the final result.

He said: ‘We need to learn and we need to learn quickly. In terms of injuries, if you just watch the first half today you don’t think about the injured players because in the first half we were in control and dominated the game.

'I would like to tell you something different, but the reality of the two games is that with two red cards, everything changed.’