Chelsea stroll past Brighton to go above Man Utd and stay in the hunt for a Champions League place

IT'S as if Maurizio Sarri was playing with us all along.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi starred as Chelsea strolled past Brighton 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Olivier Giroud, Eden Hazard and the excellent Loftus-Cheek were on target as Sarri's men go above Manchester United into fifth and stay in the mix for a Champions League place.

Giroud, starting for just the second time in 18 Prem games, calmed the Stamford Bridge nerves with his first goal of 2019.

The Frenchman justified getting the nod ahead of the hapless Gonzalo Higuain with a neat finish after some excellent wide play from Hudson-Odoi.

The England international, 18, skipped past Anthony Knockaert and his low cross was met by Giroud’s clever near post run to rattle the roof of the net.

Hudson-Odoi, finally starting his first league game of the season, was a constant threat despite the visitors dropping deep and not allowing any space in behind them.

But when Chris Hughton’s side ventured forward on the rare occasion, they caused Chelsea problems and should have taken the lead.

Yves Bissouma danced past Cesar Azpilicueta on 30 minutes and his pull back was missed by Florin Andone, who took it off Shane Duffy’s toe just as he was about to fire home from close range.

Hughton suffered a blow as Solly March limped off with a muscle injury before the break and is now a major doubt for Saturdays’ FA Cup semi-final.

Hudson-Odoi should have opened his top-flight account after the break when he climbed highest on the back post to head Jorginho pinpoint cross, but his effort was straight at Matt Rayan.

Hazard made it safe on the hour when he combined with Jorginho and Loftus-Cheek.

The Belgian dropped a shoulder inside Lewis Dunk and curled a beauty past Ryan for his 17th goal of the campaign.

Anything Hazard can do, Loftus-Cheek can do better and he proved it minutes later.

Hazard, the provider this time, and the England star produced a carbon copy of his team-mates finish - but from much further out for his second league strike in four days.

Loftus-Cheek offers so much more going forward than Mateo Kovacic, while the Stamford Bridge faithful are crying out for Hudson-Odoi to feature to convince him his future is in London, not Bavaria.

Chelsea's double-barrel boys will have tougher nights but Sarri must take his head out of his notebook to see what is right in front of him and start putting a bit more trust in the academy graduates.