Brighton 3-0 Newcastle: Albion must surely finish above terrible Toon

If fans were allowed inside the Amex for Brighton 3-0 Newcastle, there are a fair few songs that would have been doing the rounds as the Albion sauntered to only their second Premier League home win of the season.

“You’re getting sacked in the morning,” directed towards Steve Bruce, who probably will not be getting sacked anytime soon. Based on what we have seen over 180 minutes against the Toon this season, that is excellent news for Brighton’s survival hopes.

“How shit must you be, we’re winning at home,” with the answer to that question being very. And finally, “Can we play you every week?” If only. Brighton have delivered their two most dominant displays of the campaign when facing a hapless Newcastle, winning both games 3-0.

Newcastle fans must think that watching Brighton is great fun, akin to supporting prime Barcelona. The reality as we know all too well is very different.

Normally, it is frustrating as hell. On another evening, there is every chance this game would have finished Brighton 0-0 Newcastle rather than Brighton 3-0 Newcastle, leading to the words “clinical”, “striker” and “relegation” being bandied about merrily among Seagulls supporters.

For some reason though, the Toon have become the team that Brighton love to cash in their xG cheque against. No complaints here; if you are going to pick an opponent to face when Potterball suddenly clicks and everything goes right, a rival for that one remaining place in the bottom three makes a pretty good choice.

The first place to start with Brighton 3-0 Newcastle is probably Potter’s line up. It was pretty whacky and initially, the strangest element appeared to be Jakub Moder making his full Premier League debut at left wing back.

In his career so far, the £9 million signing from Lech Poznan has played as a holding midfielder, a traditional central midfielder, a number 10 and a striker, but never as a wing back.

Given the way in which Moder took to the role like a duck to water, he is even more versatile than it first appeared. It will be interesting to see if Moder plays and where when Poland face England at Wembley in next week’s international break.

Pascal Gross continued where he left off in the second half against Southampton by turning out at right wing back. Not many would have picked Gross and his lack of pace to operate in a position which requires a player to get up and down the line.

Gross made it work through his work rate, the ground he covers and his technical ability. It was from out on the right that he claimed one of his best assists yet with a beautiful Gross Turn and perfect low cross for the Albion’s third, coming after his diagonal switch of play had set up the second.

Potter’s biggest masterstroke though was not in his unusual choices at wing back but what he did with Brighton’s front line. Danny Welbeck and Neal Maupay almost played as orthodox wingers, with Welbeck taking up a position more left wing than Jeremy Corbyn and Maupay more right wing than Nigel Farage. Bursting into the space this left through the middle from the number 10 role came Leandro Trossard.

Bruce could find no way to combat Potter’s approach, looking every bit the tactical grandfather clock in a digital age that NUFCBlog.co.uk rather brilliantly described him as in our pre-game chat with the opposition.

Newcastle’s defenders did not know whether to get dragged out wide by Welbeck and Maupay, nor how to pick up Trossard when he came charging into the wide open spaces created by the Albion having no obvious central figureheads to their attacks.

In a sign of just how effective this was, Trossard, Welbeck and Maupay all scored. Gross got his aforementioned pair of assists and Moder should have netted twice inside the first three minutes.

That would have been the most sensational full Brighton debut against Newcastle since Bryan Wade famously scored all the Albion goals in a 4-2 Goldstone Ground win over the Toon in 1991.

Moder’s first effort saw him fire a volley over the bar and towards Woodingdean after Ben White had marauded into the final third and his second chance drew a decent stop from Martin Dubravka.

For much of the first half, it looked like it was going to be one of those evenings of lots of possession, lots of squandered chances and lots of frustration.

Maupay was guilty of a couple of misses as we have come to expect and Yves Bissouma should have done more to test Dubravka with a weak effort which was easy for the Toon goalkeeper.

With Brighton so dominant, Newcastle would have been grateful to make it to the break still level. Unfortunately for Bruce and his players, they could not quite get there as two events in the final throes of the first half started a descent into misery for the visitors.

Isaac Hayden was stretchered off after Bissouma fell awkwardly onto the Toon player’s knee in an accidental clash. Newcastle must be sick of the sight of Bissouma, who also kicked Jamaal Lewis in the face in the Albion’s September victory at St James’ Park.

Trossard then gave Brighton the lead they deserved on the stroke of half time via a brilliant goal. Joel Veltman hit a long ball out of defence which Trossard latched onto in one of those pockets of space he was having so much joy finding.

There still did not seem much on but Trossard turned and swept a stunning effort from a full 25 yards into the opposite corner of Dubravka’s net, setting the Albion on their way.

Things might have turned out different had Ryan Fraser not smacked the post five minutes into the second half with Robert Sanchez beaten.

That was Sanchez’s only action of any note all evening. He did still manage to provide one of the most telling statistics of Brighton 3-0 Newcastle in completing more successful passes than any Toon player, a sign of just how dominant the Albion were.

Newcastle paid for that Fraser miss as within 60 seconds, Brighton doubled their lead. Gross switched the play to find Welbeck hugging the left hand touchline.

Dat Guy cut inside and just like Trossard before him, hit a low effort from outside the box which ended up in the opposite corner of the Toon goal.

Not only were Brighton actually shooting from distance, but they were scoring from distance – Trossard and Welbeck ensuring that the Albion scored twice from outside the box for the first time in the Premier League.

To find the most recent occasion Brighton netted more than one distance strike in a league game, you had to go back to April 2017 when Glenn Murray and Sebastien Pocognoli secured a 2-1 win over QPR and gave Chris Hughton’s side one foot in the Premier League.

Watching goals fly in from far out all felt rather peculiar, although not as peculiar as being in total control of a game of football with no real reason to panic about surrendering yet another lead.

Maupay put things to bed with the Albion’s third on 68 minutes via another fine move. Welbeck drifted into a central position to win possession, feeding Gross out on the right.

One Gross Turn later and Paul Dummett was left a confused heap, giving Gross the space he needed to deliver a low ball into the box which Maupay rifled home emphatically.

And that was that. Game over with 20 minutes still to play and three very welcome points. We said beforehand that given Brighton’s record this season against clubs in the top half of the table, failing to beat Newcastle would not necessarily be a disaster as the Albion would probably take unexpected points off Manchester United and Everton.

For a free falling Newcastle though, being hammered so convincingly by a relegation rival is likely to have a huge impact on a club were acrimony between manager and squad is already said to be rife.

Their performance had shades of when Brighton appeared to down tools when losing 5-0 at home to Plucky Little Bournemouth. We were bloody lucky that Cardiff City’s attempts at a great escape from relegation fell just short of overhauling us that year.

With the way they played at the Amex, it is difficult to see Newcastle overtaking Brighton in the final eight games of the campaign. In fact, it would take a spectacular turnaround in their fortunes and an even more impressive Albion cock up for that to happen.

And if Newcastle finish below Brighton, then the Albion will be playing Premier League football in 2021-22. It hasn’t always been pretty, but the finishing straight is in sight.