Chris Hughton blamed Albion's second home defeat of the season by Chelsea on "poor" and "avoidable" goals.

They fell behind in the 17th minute when Eden Hazard set up Pedro for a tap-in.

Hazard sprinted clear to double Chelsea's lead in the 33rd minute after Leon Balogun gave the ball away to Willian.

Hughton said: "In the end, whether we deserved it or not – probably no over 90 minutes – when you get a rhythm in the game and are in the ascendancy, you do think it might be your day.

"But, having started well, the first goal knocked the confidence out of us. You know then it's more of an uphill battle. The second goal, they're such a talented team and athletic team on the ball.

"It's very difficult to get to them. The first goal was poor from our point of view. The second was avoidable. It knocked us. You ask the boys to respond at half-time and at least we finished with a good response and good second half that I hope we can take something from."

Hazard scored twice when Chelsea won 4-0 at the Amex in January. He now has nine assists this season, the most across the top five leagues in Europe.

Hughton said: "Eden is very difficult to stop. He's a world-class player. We have big experience of that - if we thought he was difficult this season, he was perhaps even better last season.

"When you have that kind of player, it's very difficult to get close to them. You have to do that as a team performance, and we got to grips with them better in the second half than we did from about 15 minutes on."