Brighton 2-1 Chelsea: FA Cup King Rutter tops ratings

Georginio Rutter is rather enjoying himself in the FA Cup so far this season. Having scored twice at Norwich City in round three, round four saw him grab a goal, an assist and top spot in the Brighton 2-1 Chelsea player ratings.

There were plenty of other fine performances alongside Rutter as the Albion bounced back in perfect style from their 7-0 hammering at Nottingham Forest seven days earlier.

Typical Brighton to suffer their heaviest league defeat in 67 years, followed by knocking Todd Boehly’s billion pound bottle jobs out of the FA Cup.

Here are your Brighton 2-1 Chelsea player ratings.

Bart Verbruggen – 5.45

Terrible error inside of five minutes gave the visitors their goal when he somehow dropped a routine Cole Palmer cross into his own net. He has gone from one of the Albion’s best players in September and October to struggling over the past few months. So much so that some fans are calling for Carl Rushworth to take over.

Joel Veltman – 7.45

Deserved to score a 10 for the clattering, somewhat unnecessary tackle on Marc Cucurella which brought the biggest cheer of the night from the Amex crowd. The best booking you will ever see from a Brighton player.

Jan Paul van Hecke – 6.82

Would have expected to be far more busy than he was. Cole Palmer though was reasonably quiet as Chelsea managed barely a shot on target after being gifted the lead by Verbruggen.

Lewis Dunk – 6.27

Limped off with yet another injury as father time continues to catch up with the Albion captain. Whisper it quietly, but Brighton actually looked more comfortable with Adam Webster alongside Van Hecke in the second half.

Tariq Lamptey – 7.82

Having been pretty bloody awful in the Forest humiliation, Lamptey turned things around to be joint-second in the Brighton 2-1 Chelsea ratings alongside Kaoru Mitoma. The duo were a constant threat down the left.

Carlos Baleba – 7.09

The return of Baleba – and Fabian Hurzeler deciding to start more than one central midfielder this week – played a big part in the Albion running out victors. Outshone Moises Caicedo, so we should probably ready ourselves for a £215 million summer bid from Boehly.

Jack Hinshelwood – 6.91

Neat and tidy in midfield as he continues to work his way back from a knee injury. Hinshelwood played an underrated part in the equalising goal, helping to shift the ball out left towards Lamptey for the initial cross which sparked total panic from Robert Sanchez.

Yankubu Minteh – 7.09

An improvement in the defensive side of his game has been noticeable in the past two matches. Nothing quite as glorious as that brilliant last ditch tackle at Forest (we can forget the Tricky Trees scored straight from the resulting corner) but his tracking back was important. Good going forward too. Deserves to be ahead of Brajan Gruda in the pecking order.

GEORGINIO RUTTER – 8.36

Fantastic header from Veltman’s David Beckham-esque cross levelled the game just seven minutes after Chelsea took the lead. That was important as it helped eliminate some doubts from the home crowd that another Forest was about to occur. His brilliant lofted pass then played Mitoma in for the winner, which left the former Albion trio of Cucurella, Caicedo and Sanchez all lying on their backs as the ball ended up in the back of the net. Glorious.

Kaoru Mitoma – 7.82

Loves an outrageous piece of control followed by improvised volley in a home FA Cup fourth round tie against one of the European Super League Elite Six. Two years after his goal eliminated Liverpool at the Amex, this was perhaps an even better finish. Helped of course by making Sanchez look very silly.

Danny Welbeck – 6.18

Worked hard but not his best evening on the ball as he never really worked Sanchez. Not that it mattered when the Albion were clinical enough to score from two of their first three shots on target.

Adam Webster – 6.91

Never easy as a centre back being introduced unexpectedly into a tight game. Webster was excellent after replacing Dunk, ensuring the Blues never really looked like getting an equaliser.

Diego Gomez – 7.09

An encouraging home debut for the £12 million January signing from Inter Miami. Looked to dominate midfield and there were shades of Alexis Mac Allister in how he went about. If Gomez ends up being half as good as the Albion’s first ever World Cup winner, Brighton will have made a very good acquisition.

Yasin Ayari – 6.09

Introduced late on as Brighton sought greater control of possession to see the game out.

Joao Pedro – 6.00

Another introduction for the closing stages. Concentrated on his game and didn’t notice him waving his arms at the crowd for once. Which was nice.

The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via social media. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter or We Are Brighton on Bluesky and look out for the player rating thread after each game.