Newcastle hit rock bottom after rare away triumph for Brighton
No longer can Rafael Benitez point to the vagaries of football’s fixture computer after Newcastle blundered their way to a new nadir in an increasingly wretched start to the season.
The quality of opposition during their winless start, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, provided a form of comfort blanket during desperate times. However, there were no such mitigating circumstances against a Brighton side who they might have hand-picked as opponents against which to stop the rot, but who nevertheless recorded their first away win in the Premier League in 18 attempts.
Substitute Yves Bissouma should have embellished the margin of victory in stoppage time but fired wide.
“With the chances we created, we should have won the game,” Benitez insisted, after presiding over the club’s worst opening to a season since the end of the 19th century. “We were in control but didn’t take our opportunities. Everybody is a little bit down.”
Defeat arrived by the most slender of margins. Watched once again by the recently ubiquitous Mike Ashley, Benitez’s side deserved a share of the spoils, but were let down by shoddy finishing. Ayoze Perez missed a glorious opportunity to set the early tone, the Spaniard’s weak shot being saved by Mat Ryan after Jonjo Shelvey had dispossessed Gaetan Bong on the edge of the area. Matt Ritchie sent a free header wide and Yoshinori Muto was unable to direct his header on target when Shelvey’s shot ballooned up off the increasingly busy Ryan, who played a pivotal role in Newcastle’s fifth consecutive home defeat, the club’s joint worst run there for 64 years.
Kenedy perhaps deserved a shade more luck when his fierce drive grazed the crossbar, and the hosts were again without fortune in their justified protests that the final touch had been made by Brighton’s Solly March in the lead-up to the corner that provided the contest’s only goal as the half-hour mark approached.
That frustration should not have prevented them from defending the ensuing set-piece from Alireza Jahanbakhsh in such chaotic fashion. Shane Duffy – immense throughout – was al- lowed to head the ball back to Jose Izquierdo, whose shot from the edge of the area was touched by Paul Dummett and then diverted past Martin Dubravka from a dozen yards by Beram Kayal to seal a 12th defeat in the last 15 games for the hosts, and with it a place at the foot of the Premier League, an outcome sealed by Ryan’s late save from Shelvey’s deflected free-kick.
Brighton’s first win on the road in the league since a single-goal victory at Swansea last November arrived at a cost, with Glenn Murray carried off in a neck brace after requiring oxygen during more than six minutes of treatment.
A clash of heads with Federico Fernandez left the Brighton forward motionless on the turf as players from both sides gestured frantically for medical assistance. Murray had regained consciousness as he was transferred to a waiting ambulance, with news of Brighton’s first victory on Tyneside for more than a quarter of a century no doubt a tonic as it filtered through to the 35-year-old while he underwent tests in a nearby hospital.
“Glenn’s OK,” said Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager. “He’s been discharged from hospital and we’ll do the appropriate things this week. Clearly, he’ll be sore for a while.
“This is a big win. It was the type of game where you have to work very hard for the victory.”
Newcastle United (4-4-2) Dubravka 6; Yedlin 6, Lascelles 6, Fernandez 6, Dummett 6; Ritchie 6, Diame 5, Shelvey 7, Kenedy 5; Perez 3, Muto 5 (Joselu 74). Subs Darlow (g), Schar, Murphy, Hayden, Manquillo, Atsu. Brighton and Hove Albion (4-2-3-1) Ryan 9; Bruno 7 (Bernardo 68), Duffy 9, Dunk 9, Bong 8; Stephens 7, Kayal 7; Jahanbakhsh 7, March 7, Izquierdo 7 (Bissouma 80); Murray 6 (Locadia 15). Subs Button (g), Andone, Knockaert, Balogun. Booked Jahanbakhsh, Kayal. Referee Andre Marriner (West Midlands).