Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca criticised the desire of his players as he reflected on the “worst performance” of his tenure following a thumping 3-0 Premier League defeat by Brighton.

Six days on from slipping to an FA Cup fourth-round exit at the Amex Stadium, the Blues suffered a crippling sense of deja vu thanks to Kaoru Mitoma’s eye-catching opener and Yankuba Minteh’s double.

Maresca’s fourth-placed side have now taken just nine points from their last nine top-flight fixtures after blowing a big opportunity to put pressure on their rivals in the battle for Champions League qualification.

Travelling fans chanted “we want our Chelsea back” during a miserable evening compounded by a hamstring injury sustained by Noni Madueke, having sung “we’ve got our Chelsea back” just under two months ago.

“The reaction is everywhere the same in terms of when you’re winning games the fans are happy and when you don’t win games the fans are upset,” said Maresca.

“In this moment, they are completely right to be upset, especially in this moment of the season with the chance to bring this club where this club has to be.

“Winning you can go one point from third, you can make the gap bigger with the rest.

“To come here and play in the way we played, not on the ball, in terms of desire, we probably need to show more.”

Speaking to Sky Sports, the Italian added: “I feel pressure always, not only now, but tonight the performance we can say was the worst performance since I arrived.”

Mitoma, who claimed Brighton’s winner in Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup triumph, produced a goal-of-the-season contender by sublimely plucking Bart Verbruggen’s searching pass out of the air with a deft first touch before beating Trevoh Chalobah and rifling into the bottom right corner from inside the D.

Minteh doubled the Seagulls’ advantage shortly after Chelsea captain Enzo Fernandez had a header disallowed for a push on Joel Veltman and then sealed a resounding victory in the 63rd minute.

Amid the ongoing injury absence of first-choice striker Nicolas Jackson, Chelsea dominated possession but failed to register an attempt on target.

“We struggled to create chances,” said Maresca. “Something, until one week ago, two weeks ago, we were doing very well, many chances every game.

“In this moment, the bad feeling is we look that easily we can concede chances and we struggle to create chances. This is the feeling in this moment.

“There are many reasons why, for sure. Injury is part of that but we have 13 games to go and we need to finish in the best way.”

Winger Madueke was recalled as part of four changes but, with England boss Thomas Tuchel watching from the stands, limped off inside 21 minutes to be replaced by Jadon Sancho.

“Noni unfortunately is a hamstring problem so he will be out for a while,” said Maresca.

Brighton, who were hammered 7-0 at third-placed Nottingham Forest just under a fortnight ago, climbed to eighth following a first home league success since early November.

Seagulls head coach Fabian Hurzeler savoured a moment of magic from Mitoma as he also played down talk of a feud with rival manager Maresca.

The assist from goalkeeper Verbruggen came after he gifted Chelsea an early lead in the cup tie with a calamitous own goal.

“It was a special goal, it was a special moment,” Hurzeler said of Mitoma’s 27th-minute effort.

“For me, if I look back on my career, I don’t know if I ever saw this from my own player. It’s a great action by him.

“I also wanted to mention Bart Verbruggen’s assist. It was a great pass and a great reaction from him. He showed personality, he showed character after he made a mistake last weekend.”

Ahead of the game, Maresca heaped praise on former Seagulls manager Roberto De Zerbi – a compatriot and close friend – but refused to speak about Hurzeler.

“I respect him, he’s doing a great job, he’s a great manager,” Hurzeler said of his opposite number.

“For me, it’s always good to compete with the best managers and therefore I always respect everyone and everyone’s opinion.”