Saturday 20 January 2018 16:04, UK
Brighton boss Chris Hughton claimed his team should have been given two penalties in the defeat to Chelsea.
Ezequiel Schelotto went down in the penalty box twice in the first half via challenges from Willy Caballero and Tiemoue Bakayoko but his appeals were turned down by referee Jon Moss.
An inspired performance from Eden Hazard helped Chelsea back to winning ways in the Premier League with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Hughton's team.
However, the Brighton boss believes the scoreline could have been different if his team were awarded two spot kicks.
"For me, we should have had two penalties," Hughton said.
"The first one I thought was at the time, but the second one I wasn't sure and on any refereeing decision when the goalkeeper comes out there's every chance a decision will need to be made.
"What you have got to do is get yourself into a position where you can see it. If the referee said he hasn't seen it then it's not one that I don't believe but there always going to be a chance that there was a decision to be made. You need things to go your way and we've had two that haven't.
"We had two appeals that need to go for you when you're playing against Chelsea with the quality they have and we have a difficulty at scoring goals."
Brighton's response to the early setback of conceding two goals in the opening six minutes was good as they created a number of decent chances but Willy Caballero was on top form to deny Tomer Hemed and the crossbar kept out Davy Propper's header early after the interval.
Hughton felt the result flattered Chelsea.
"We didn't do ourselves any favours going two-nil down early in the game," he said.
"They are then in the ascendancy - the fear is that it could become three or four. In full flow, they are super team.
"Three of the goals we could have done better - these are areas we know about. The quality they have and it was unlike us as we've been good at not conceding from open play. We found it hard but we battled in there. We did show great resilience. We gave them a game in a period of the second half.
"It wasn't a true reflection of the game - I thought we had some good periods."
