The mood has turned mutinous at Swansea City. It was like the first half of last season all over again as the Swansea supporters vented their anger, turning on the board after another woeful performance culminated in a fifth Premier League defeat in six matches and condemned them to a place in the bottom three.

“We want our club back” was one of the more polite chants on a day when Glenn Murray scored for the third game in succession to continue Brighton & Hove Albion’s excellent start to the season and briefly lift them up to eighth place. Swansea, such obliging opponents, registered only two shots on target and the brutal truth is that they already look like a team destined for the Championship.

They have now lost six of their seven home games in all competitions this season and it was alarming to see a team at this level playing with so little belief and conviction, never mind quality. The closest they came to scoring was in injury-time, when Luciano Narsingh hit the crossbar, but the 90 minutes prior to that were absolutely dreadful.

So many passes went astray, the glaring lack of creativity in the squad that should have been addressed in the summer was badly exposed once again, and the players’ confidence is shot to bits, summed up by the sight of so many abject free-kicks and corners being taken. Two of those in quick succession, with around 20 minutes remaining, proved to be the tipping point for the home fans. “You greedy bastards, get out of our club” – a chant aimed at the Swansea board – reverberated from the East Stand as the frustration that has been bubbling away for weeks came to the surface.

Sam Clucas, a summer signing from Hull City, was the man behind those two set-pieces and was substituted not long afterwards to ironic cheers from the home supporters. Tom Carroll, one of so many players to have badly lost their way this season, had already been subjected to the same treatment. In other words, patience has finally snapped at the Liberty Stadium and it was no surprise when the final whistle was met with a chorus of boos.

Paul Clement, Swansea’s head coach, looked in a state of shock at what he had just witnessed. “My summary of that is if we play at that level and that standard, we can’t be expected to win a game. It was very poor the way we defended the goal – a simple throw-in, not dealing with that, not stopping the cross, players unmarked – and then you see a team that is really struggling with any kind of confidence.”

Clement admitted that the fans showed their frustration “more ferociously” than before and felt that filtered through to his team, yet he refused to use that as an excuse and said that players had to be brave enough to handle any criticism. “I think it affected the team, I think it affected some individuals, but our job is to deal with that. At the moment we’re in a really bad moment, no question about it. But together, with me at the front, we have to find a way to get a victory, just to stop this vicious cycle of poor performance, bad result, poor performance, bad result.”

Brighton have no such problems. A second successive away win arrived courtesy of Murray, who nudged the ball over the line with his knee after Federico Fernández seemed to think that he was safe to let Anthony Knockaert’s cross sail over his head. From Swansea’s point of view it was a catalogue of errors, including Clucas, filling in at left-back, giving Knockaert far too much space to deliver his centre.

Brighton would have had a second but for a superb save from Lukasz Fabianski to deny Lewis Dunk. In response Swansea created only two decent chances. The first when Mathew Ryan saved from Tammy Abraham and the second when Narsingh hit the woodwork. Brighton, in short, could not have been more comfortable. “We weren’t sure how the season was going to unfold, so for us to be where we are at this moment has probably surpassed our expectations,” said Chris Hughton, Brighton’s manager.