Brighton 4-0 Man United wins WAB Memorable Moment of 2021-22
Forget Most Memorable Moment of the 2021-22 season – Brighton beating Man United 4-0 at the Amex has a strong claim to being one of the most memorable moments of the Albion’s 121 year existence.
23 years ago and football supporting school children across Sussex had been celebrating wildly. Being 1999, this of course had nothing to do with Brighton & Hove Albion and everything to do with Manchester United.
At a rough guess, around 70 percent of kids supported the Red Devils based on them being the best team in the land. You were lucky if there was another Albion fan in your class.
Whilst United were busy winning their historic treble, Brighton finished 17th in Division Three in their second season playing games a 150 mile round trip away in Gillingham.
Three trophies in the bag at the Theatre of Dreams, a 4-0 defeat at home to Darlington at the pissing Priestfield.
“Why do you support Brighton, why don’t you support a Premier League club?” was a question asked by United-following schoolmates on a daily basis, most of whom could not even point to Manchester on map. Oh how they laughed when you said you had spent your weekend going to Halifax to watch the Albion lose.
And that is what made Brighton 4-0 Man United even more special. Who was laughing now? 23 years on and not only were we supporting a Premier League club, but said Premier League club had risen from the very bottom to humiliate the once mighty Manchester United. And it was absolutely glorious.
Moises Caicedo crashed in the opener with 15 minutes on the clock, hitting a low strike through a crowd of players and into the bottom corner of David De Gea’s goal from 25 yards out.
It was in the second half though that the fun really began with Brighton scoring three times in the space of 11 minutes to blow United away.
WAB Brighton Player of the Season Marc Cucurella came charging forward from defence to make it 2-0 four minutes after the restart.
It was Cucurella’s first goal in English football and he burst into tears in front of the North Stand whilst celebrating.
Just when you thought you could not love the wild haired Spaniard anymore, he goes and shows you how much scoring for the Albion meant to him. What a guy.
A sweeping move from back to front gave Brighton their third eight minutes later. Robert Sanchez sent a long ball forward to Cucurella.
He found Leandro Trossard who worked it inside to Gross. Gross was coolness personified, dancing his way past Raphael Varane before stroking into the back of the United net.
180 seconds after that and it was four. Gross played in Danny Welbeck who dinked over De Gea. Although Diogo Dalot managed to get back and clear Dat Guy’s effort off the line, he only succeeded in smashing the ball into Trossard to bundle home.
“WE WANT FIVE, WE WANT FIVE, WE WANT FIVE” echoed around the Amex. “How shit must you be, we’re winning at home” referenced the fact that up until this point, the Albion had won only three out of 17 Premier League home matches in the 2021-22 season.
Ralf Rangnick – who once played for Southwick in the County League – responded by introducing Harry Maguire.
Yes, United really were introducing their England international centre back when 4-0 down to Brighton in an attempt to prevent the scoreline getting any worse.
United fans had smuggled a flare in to celebrate their team scoring. With no prospect of that happening, they let it off to mark the return of their captain from injury instead.
Cristano Ronaldo meanwhile just looked dumbstruck. One of the greatest footballers who ever lived on the end of an embarrassing defeat to little old Brighton.
The full time whistle blew with the Amex still pretty full. No greater compliment could be paid to Potter and his players than the fact that Albion fans were willing to forsake getting home quickly or not having to queue for a beer to applaud the team off following Brighton 4-0 Man United.
And boy did those beers in the sunshine afterwards taste good. Sometimes, being a Brighton supporter can be quite good.
The United win was a continuation of the good form Brighton had shown in April, starting with back-to-back away victories over Arsenal and Spurs.
No side since Hull City in 2008 had beaten the Gunners and Tottenham in consecutive Premier League matches.
They were two fantastic away days and it therefore does not come as much surprise that owning North London is voted into a distant second sport in Memorable Moment of the Season.
Potter responded to a run of six defeats and one draw in seven matches by packing his starting XI against Arsenal with as many central midfielders as possible.
Before kick off, most Brighton fans felt it had the air of a team picked by a bloke who had started on the Grand National Day Guinness far too early.
By 5pm, Potter had shown why he is the highly paid professional football manager and we were scuttling off to find a television showing Noble Yeats winning the world’s greatest horserace.
Trossard opened the scoring at the Emirates with a fine goal from outside the area. Enock Mwepu doubled the advantage in the second half after a superb passing move and although the Gunners pulled one back through Martin Odegaard, Brighton survived a late onslaught for three famous points.
Even better was to come a week later at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Albion had been the better team over the 90 minutes but it looked like they would have to settle for a 0-0 draw until Trossard struck a 90th minute winner.
The Vampire of Genk glided his way past Eric Dier as if the Spurs defender were not there. Once confronted by Hugo Lloris, Trossard bent a scrumptious effort with the outside of his foot into the far corner to make it six points from six in the space of seven days against top four chasing sides from the capital. North London was ours.
Beating Arsenal, Spurs and United in the final two months of the campaign helped carry Brighton into ninth spot.
Not only did that set a new Albion record for highest ever finish in English football, but it also meant that the Seagulls placed above Crystal Palace.
Brighton bettering their arch rivals has been voted as the third most Memorable Moment of the 2021-22 campaign.
It has only happened twice in the last 30 years – and Palace ended up with bragging rights on both of those occasions anyway.
Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named had the Albion above Palace in the 2011-12 season. Palace though wrote their names in the history books as the first visiting side to win a league game at the Amex, ruining the handful of places Brighton finished higher up the Championship table.
A year later and the Albion came fourth whilst Palace finished fifth. The less said about what happened next, the better…
WeAreBrighton.com Memorable Moment of the Season 2021-22 – The Results
- Brighton 4-0 Man United – 79.44%
- Owning North London – 9.54%
- Finishing above Palace – 4.11%
- Coming from 2-0 down to draw at Liverpool – 3.52%
- A point away at Chelsea – 1.76%
- Tony Bloom in the away end at Brentford – 1.61%
Previous Winners: Manchester City home (2021), Arsenal home (2020), Doing the double over Palace (2019), Manchester United home (2018), Wigan Athletic home (2017) Sheffield Wednesday home playoffs (2016) Fulham away (2015), Forest away (2014), Palace home (2013), Doncaster home (2012), Charlton away (2011), Southampton away (2010).
