Chelsea were thumped 4-1 by Graham Potter’s former club Brighton (Picture: Getty)

Conor Gallagher admits Brighton ‘wanted it more’ than Chelsea after the Blues were thumped 4-1 by Graham Potter’s former club at the Amex Stadium.

Potter endured a nightmare return to Brighton as he watched his Chelsea team concede three first-half goals on their way to an emphatic Premier League defeat.

In-form Brighton star Leandro Trossard gave the hosts an early lead and Chelsea scored two own goals before half-time through Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah.

Kai Havertz pulled a goal back for Chelsea shortly after half-time but Pascal Gross capped a miserable afternoon for Potter when he scored Brighton’s fourth late on.

Chelsea’s first defeat since Potter left Brighton to take over a Stamford Bridge leaves the Blues fifth in the Premier League, three points outside the top-four places.

Brighton, meanwhile, climb to eighth in the table after securing their first win under Potter’s replacement Roberto De Zerbi.

‘It’s a tough one to take,’ Chelsea midfielder Gallagher said. ‘At the end of the day, we were not good enough individually or as a team.

Brighton stunned Chelsea at the Amex Stadium (Picture: Getty)

‘It seemed like they wanted it a bit more than us. We have to look at ourselves. We’re to blame and we are gutted, very disappointed in ourselves as a team as we know we’re so much more professional than that.

‘Credit to Brighton, they were very good. They’re a top team, their fans were up for it.’

Gallagher, who spent last season on loan at Brighton’s rivals Crystal Palace, added: ‘We were always in the game, even at half time when we were three down.

‘It shows we did have chances and I should have scored in the first half which could have changed the game. It didn’t go that way.

‘We had chances, but we need to defend better as a team. We shouldn’t be conceding that many goals so we’re very disappointed.

‘We’re at fault. We need to look at the mistakes, learn from them, dust ourselves off and go again.’

Potter, meanwhile, described the match as ‘painful’, telling BBC Sport: ‘We didn’t really recover from a poor start.

‘Once the crowd were so engaged it was a difficult one for us. The scoreline was painful. Brighton played a good game, especially in the first half.

‘You can always look at goals and think you can do better. We have to take responsibility a bit in the first half.

‘We have had a lot of football but that’s no excuse. We couldn’t quite get to that level. We didn’t take our opportunities in attack and they did.

‘We had some opportunities to attack them too but unfortunately we missed the pass or didn’t execute, then the scoreline was a painful one. When you lose you can always do better.’

Chelsea return to action on Wednesday night against Champions League opponents Dinamo Zagreb, while Brighton visit Premier League rivals Wolves next weekend.

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The Blues were thumped by Graham Potter’s former club.