Liverpool 0-1 Brighton: Hard day’s night gives Albion victory at Anfield

Well, where do you start with that one? Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool 0-1 Brighton & Hove Albion. You have to pinch yourself to make sure what happened on Merseyside was not a dream.

In their last game at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp’s side surrendered their 68 game unbeaten home run to Burnley. The Reds could consider themselves a tad unfortunate to have lost against Ashley Barnes and co; they had 72 percent possession, 27 shots, six on target and won 12 corners.

There was no such misfortune against the Albion. Liverpool dominated possession with 63 percent but that is all part of the Brighton game plan these days, Graham Potter having realised that his players are a much better side when they do not control the ball.

In all the areas that mattered, the Seagulls were dominant. Brighton had 13 shots to Liverpool’s 11, four of which were on target compared to the home side’s one.

Only the most blinkered of Liverpool fans could say that Brighton did not deserve their three points for a hard day’s night in which they worked like dogs to earn a first victory at Anfield since 1982.

There were plenty of those sorts of Liverpool supporters, of course. Within minutes of the final whistle, they were trying to portray Brighton as a side who had no interest in attacking, who parked the bus and were lucky to escape with a win for their anti-football.

Nobody who mattered was listening to such victimhood. Match of the Day were gushing in their praise of the way that Brighton played at Anfield, both defensively and in attack.

Even Klopp, who so often looks for excuses like fixture scheduling or a bit of wind to blame his team’s failure on, admitted that they had been beaten by the better team. “Brighton deserved to win, no doubt about it.” You feeling okay, Jurgen?

For the third game running, Potter shunned his Roulette Selection Wheel and named what most would consider to be his strongest available team.

The two changes he made from the 1-0 win over Spurs were both enforced. Alexis Mac Allister and Joel Veltman missed out through injury with Steve Alzate coming into the centre of midfield to push Pascal Gross into the number 10 role and Dan Burn taking over at left wing back and Solly March switching to the right.

It is amazing what a bit of consistency in selection can do, particularly in defence. Ben White, Lewis Dunk and Adam Webster are the Albion’s three best centre backs and with them suddenly getting a run of games together as a back line, Brighton have recorded four clean sheets in a row – something they have never, ever done as a top flight club before.

Needless to say in keeping a clean sheet at Anfield, the defence were superb. An interesting rumour had begun swirling earlier in the day about Gareth Southgate taking a serious interest in the talents of Webster but on a night like this, you could make a justification for any of Brighton’s defenders being called into the next Three Lions squad.

Dunk was his normal self, blocking and leading. White was excellent, tempering his thirst for charging forward with the knowledge that you cannot give Liverpool’s front three any space.

As for Webster, the £18 million Brighton paid to Bristol City for Webster 18 months ago looks more of a bargain with each passing game at the moment.

There were numerous phrases being bandied about to describe him in Liverpool 0-1 Brighton. The most fitting was Rolls-Royce defender as he covered every blade of grass and put in perfectly timed tackle after perfectly timed tackle.

Webster also helped Burn have his best game of the season in containing Mo Salah. There were more than a few eyebrows raised about the prospect of Burn against Salah when the teams were announced.

Burn after all had been roasted on his last two appearances as a left back or left wing back, enduring torrid evenings in the 3-0 defeat at Leicester City before going onto score an own goal and give away a penalty against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Salah though had only one chance of any note all evening in Liverpool 0-1 Brighton. That came inside the first five minutes, when the second-best Egyptian player after Adam El-Abd lifted an effort over the bar when he should have at least his the target. Salah was otherwise stuck in Burn’s pocket.

Big Bob Sanchez could have been forgiven for expecting a busy evening after that early scare. So good were the players in front of him from that point on however that he did not have a save of any note to make. How many teams will go to Anfield and restrict Liverpool to just one shot on target?

The one piece of goalkeeping that Sanchez did provide was quality and arrived right at the death. We all know that Brighton’s defending from corners in the first half of the season was worse than turning up to a Covid-19 jab and discovering Harold Shipman is administering it.

To see a Brighton goalkeeper coming through a crowd of players in his six yard box and plucking a difficult catch out of the air as if he were taking candy from a baby was fantastic.

It was confident stuff that relieved the pressure and, as much as we still love Maty Ryan here at WAB Towers, something you would never have seen with the Australian number one in goal.

Sanchez has made a real difference since coming in and Potter deserves credit for taking a risk on a 23-year-old who this time last year was playing in League One for Rochdale.

After Salah’s miss, the Albion grew into the game and had best opportunity of the first half. The only way Liverpool could find to stop Leandro Trossard was to kick him. It would not be a surprise to hear that Trossard had set a new Guinness World Record for most times fouled in 45 minutes of football.

On one of the few occasions when the Reds neglected to illegally halt the Belgian, he linked up with March to find Neal Maupay in the box.

Maupay’s hold up skills and decision making were excellent all evening and this time, he managed to nudge the ball to Burn who lobbed over the bar and into the Kop from eight yards out with only Caoimhin Kelleher to beat.

Having seen that, most football fans would be saying something along the lines of, “If that fell to our striker rather than a defender, we would be 1-0 up.”

No such comments were made amongst the Brighton faithful, who have seen even worse finishing on a regular basis in the 2020-21 season from their centre forwards.

Klopp must have had some stern words for his players at the interval as Liverpool came out with renewed vigour at the start of the second half.

Dunk made a crucial block from Roberto Firmino, who was now starting to come to the fore, and it took a deflection off White to divert another effort from the Brazilian just wide of Sanchez’s post.

And then it happened. Brighton went 0-1 ahead against Liverpool at Anfield in the 55th minute on Wednesday 3rd February 2021 with the best piece of football that either side conjured up all evening.

Alzate started it deep in his own half with a pass back towards Webster. Webster played it first time to Burn on the left. Burn helped it on to Maupay who returned it to Burn to hit a clever lofted ball inside to Trossard.

Trossard delivered a lovely little flick to Yves Bissouma – adding a few more million to his price tag if Klopp wants to buy this summer – and he drove forward to find Gross.

The German laid off to March, a David Beckham-esque switch back to the left found Burn who had gone charging forward with the determination of a giraffe escaping a hungry pack of lions on the Serengeti to head back across goal for Alzate to volley in, via a slight deflection off Trossard.

A nine-pass-plus-Burn’s-head move involving seven different players in which the Albion advanced 70 yards up the pitch and placed a shot into the corner of the net. It was exactly what Potterball is supposed to look like.

Brighton now had 35 minutes to hold onto their 0-1 lead over Liverpool to claim a famous three points. Potter had taken the unusual step of naming two goalkeepers on the bench in Christian Walton and Tom McGill but suddenly it made sense as this looked like as good a time as any to chuck them in on place of Maupay and Trossard.

Instead, it was March who made way as the first substitute after picking up what looked like a nasty injury. The sight of the in-form wing back limping off was the only downer of the evening; to be without him for weeks to come would be a serious blow to the Albion at a time when their form is just beginning to turn around.

Adam Lallana entered the fray in place of March with Alzate moving to the right, giving the BT Sports commentators the chance to mention for 1273rd time that Lallana used to play for Liverpool.

Who would have known if they had neglected to mention it quite as much, or noticed that Brighton have quite a tall defence if that had not been brought up on an even more frequent basis than Lallana’s list of ex-clubs?

Walton and McGill were not introduced; apparently, there is something in the rules about you not being allowed to have three players in goal at once. They were not needed in any case as, rather than sit back, Brighton tried to find a killer second.

This was not some gung-ho, suicidal tactical of the sort of naivety we saw in some of Potter’s early matches in charge, such as away at Aston Villa in October 2019.

Brighton threw away what would have been a hard earned point that day after playing for over an hour with 10 men by searching for an unnecessary winner in the final seconds.

It was a measured approach of hitting on the counter where possible and it nearly worked not once, not twice, but thrice. Kelleher pulled off a world class save at full stretch from Gross’ low drive, Trossard was denied by a good block from the Liverpool goalkeeper in a one-on-one and Burn had another effort from close range. Dan Burn with two shots on goal (and an assist) from inside the penalty area away at Anfield. Just let that sink in for a minute.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes, rather than slowing down, time seemed to be going backwards to the point where it would not have been a surprise to see somebody cycling past outside on a penny farthing.

Those last 10 had a few nervy moments, most notably that corner in the dying seconds. Sanchez though came and gathered, Kevin Friend blew his final whistle and Brighton had one of the most famous wins in their history.

Whilst the title race is by no means over in this craziest of Premier League seasons, Liverpool 0-1 Brighton leaves the Reds seven points off Manchester City with City having a game in hand.

There was something quite satisfying about the Albion being the side who may have just hammered the final nail in the coffin of Liverpool’s title defence; remember all those Reds supporters who said during lockdown that Brighton should be automatically relegated for not wanting to play at neutral venues as they thought it would stop them winning their precious championship? Lol.

As for Brighton, victory opens up a 10 point gap to the relegation zone. In the first week of January, the Albion were a single point ahead of Fulham.

To go from scraping a 1-1 draw at home to 10-man Sheffield United six weeks ago to securing back-to-back wins over Liverpool and Spurs is an incredible turnaround.

Where do Brighton go from here? If experience teaches us anything, it is probably to lose at Burnley, beat Leicester City in the FA Cup, win against Aston Villa and then lose to Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion.

From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again is the Albion way. Liverpool 0-1 Brighton was a reminder that sometimes though, there is nothing better in the world than being an Albion fan.