Leandro Trossard fires Brighton to vital victory at Southampton
At the final whistle Graham Potter exuded great calm but there was no masking the magnitude of this result for Brighton, who recorded a priceless victory in their scrap for Premier League survival after comfortably fending off skimpy opposition to move three points clear of the relegation zone. Brilliant goals by Lewis Dunk and Leandro Trossard either side of Che Adams’s equaliser earned a muchneeded pick-me-up against a Southampton side stuck in the mud.
Potter does not do hyperbole or entertain doom and gloom but had surely grown tired of repeating himself following three successive defeats.
Hard-luck stories have riddled
Brighton’s season and their troubles in front of goal were this week magnified in a viral video clip encompassing almost five minutes’ worth of missed chances and despairing grimaces. Sam Allardyce recently suggested Brighton would be pushing for Europe if they had a consistent goalscorer and with Fulham in hot pursuit there was no better time to rediscover a clinical edge, with Trossard earning a first win in seven matches.
“I am so, so pleased for the players because we have had to suffer recently but we’ve got the reward for the performance,” Potter said. “Leo’s finish was really good and he has been close to scoring – hitting the post, hitting the bar – so it’s nice for him to get the goal. He knows he needs to improve that area of his game, in terms of goals of assists, but I do think he has been unlucky as well. You can either feel sorry for yourself or try to get a little bit more [luck].”
Southampton, by contrast, fell painfully flat after Trossard helped Brighton to regain the lead approaching the hour. The hosts seemed to quickly run out of ideas and, since beating Liverpool at the turn of the year, have taken just four points from the last available 36, conceding 32 goals along the way. The postmortem will make painful viewing for Ralph Hasenhüttl, who bemoaned a lackadaisical performance.
“It was very disappointing what we showed, especially in the second half,” the Southampton manager said. “I had the feeling that the opponent wanted it a little bit more. I didn’t like the way we responded to the second goal we conceded. There was no power, no energy in the team and also from the bench, there was not really an impact to see.”
This was an abnormally ruthless Brighton performance, with Trossard’s emphatic finish capping an incisive attack. Joël Veltman kickstarted the move on halfway before Brighton sliced Southampton open with three graceful touches and, with a forceful fourth, Trossard blasted in beyond Fraser Forster, who was recalled in goal. Adam Lallana, who spent 14 years at Southampton, made the most of being afforded time and space centrally to effortlessly locate Danny Welbeck, whose deft touch freed Trossard through on goal.
For Brighton, victory here eases the significance of Saturday’s date at home to Newcastle and, finally, they had a tangible reward for their enterprise.
“We’ve had some performances that I think on another day we might have got some more points,” Potter said. “If you don’t do that, clearly you’re in a situation where we find ourselves in. But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves and we have to fight. We haven’t got enough points, so we have to keep fighting.”
Brighton’s opener was symptomatic of a pale Southampton performance. Dunk surged into the box with purpose to meet Pascal Gross’s outswinging corner and a flat-footed Ryan Bertrand made a half-hearted attempt to halt the Brighton captain’s leap, putting both arms around the defender, but was powerless to prevent him scoring. Ironically it was at set-plays where Southampton, again without the injured Danny Ings, looked most dangerous.
Hasenhüttl made five changes from Wednesday’s 5-2 defeat to Manchester City in midweek, a match he later labelled a “bonus game” but did not reap the reward of those fresh legs here in what was a laboured performance.
Southampton replied when Dunk failed to generate sufficient power on a headed clearance after Saints recycled possession and Adams blasted in at the back post. Stuart Armstrong scooped a cross towards Bertrand, who found Adams, via an off-balance and backpedalling Dunk. It dropped invitingly for the lurking striker to score his third goal in three matches but the joy was short-lived and Brighton deservedly triumphed. “We were not good enough,” said Hasenhüttl, whose side remain seven points above the relegation zone. “When you don’t win games, then you are always in danger. And at the moment we are struggling to take points.”