Liverpool suffered a 10th league defeat and another significant blow to their Champions League qualification hopes as Brighton deservedly earned a 2-1 victory, in which Hugo Ekitike was forced off with an injury.
Arne Slot praised his side on Wednesday for delivering their "best performance of the season" after hammering Galatasaray, but they were second best on the south coast as Danny Welbeck struck twice either side of Milos Kerkez's gifted equaliser.
The pressure is mounting on Slot with Liverpool not losing this many league matches in a season since 2016 and are winless in their last three, which has left them in fifth, two points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa, one ahead of Chelsea and only three above rivals Everton.
Slot was already without injured duo Mo Salah and Alisson at the Amex before Ekitike collided with former Reds midfielder James Milner inside the opening five minutes and couldn't continue although the Liverpool head coach believes it is "not something that's going to keep him out for three months".
Slot added: "I think he could play tomorrow if he needed to. It was a dead leg."
Welbeck quickly added to their problems, capitalising on some slack defending from Ibrahim Konate and heading in at the back post after Diego Gomez had nodded the ball across the six-yard box.
Liverpool responded as Alexis Mac Allister's header was kept out by Bart Verbruggen before Lewis Dunk's backwards header to his goalkeeper was brilliantly anticipated by Kerkez, who finished expertly.
Brighton improved in the second half and the visitors were unable to match them. Minteh was superb on the left and it was his cross that was squared in the area by Jack Hinshelwood for Welbeck to tap in his second.
Giorgi Mamardashvili, standing in for Alisson, kept Liverpool in the game with saves from Gomez and Welbeck while Verbruggen denied Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo from levelling as the visitors slumped to another defeat.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot:
"What went wrong started off with the lead-up to this game, as so many times this season when we played a very good game and we thought we could bring that level to the first game or even better.
"We had Mo Salah injured, we had Alisson injured, and after two minutes Hugo Ekitike out, so that has happened so many times to us this season and again now.
"And what has happened a lot this season is also that the first chance of the other team immediately went in. But Brighton deserved to win if you look at the second half, because in the first half, I think it was an equal game. But in the second half, Brighton were the better team on the pitch and they deserved to win.
"Throughout the second half I think they were closer to scoring the 3-1 than we were scoring the 2-2."
Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler:
"It's not on me to judge this decision. The only thing I can say is that I said afterwards to Danny Welbeck, 'control the controllables', and that's what he did today on the pitch.
"He created his own record by scoring his 12th goal. The media will go hard on this, but besides that for me even more important for a team is how he functions as a connector.
"He's always there to connect the different ages. To connect the different cultures we have in our team. To be there as a social leader. If you want to achieve something in a World Cup that's an attitude that definitely helps.
"We keep pushing him, we keep trying to support him and hopefully one day he gets the rewards for what he's doing on and off the pitch."
