Wolves 2-1 Brighton: First half good, second half not so good

The important thing to remember after Wolves 2-1 Brighton is that a first defeat at Molineux in 15 years really does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

It would take a spectacular turnaround for the Albion to be relegated from this point, what with Fulham being 10 points behind with a vastly inferior goal difference and only four games left to play.

Brighton may specialise in the ridiculous, but it is surely beyond even this strange football club to be overhauled by the Cottagers to tumble into the Championship.

The Albion can still reach a points total in excess of 41 to set a new top flight record. Finishing 13th to equal the club’s highest ever position may be a little harder but it is by no means off the table, especially as the Albion have tended to follow losing a game they were expecting to win by winning game they were expecting to lose. Who would bet against a victory over top four chasers West Ham United next week to banish the memory of Wolves 2-1 Brighton?

You can even make a case for there being positives to come from the defeat (yes, you are reading WeAreBrighton.com). Red cards for Lewis Dunk and Neal Maupay will force Graham Potter’s hand into giving fringe players a chance for the Hammers clash, meaning we may see what the likes of Andi Zeqiri or Michal Karbownik are made of.

Potter himself shone a light again on his questionable game management as Brighton let yet another lead slip amid some curious substitutions and tactical tweaks following Dunk’s early second half dismissal.

The Albion have now dropped 23 points from winning positions this season. Such a record raises questions and if Daniel Levy was watching, he may now wonder whether Potter is currently a little too inexperienced and naive for a big six job after being outwitted by Nuno, one of Potter’s chief rivals for the Tottenham Hotspur vacancy if you believe what you read.

If Spurs are turned off Potter, that can only be good news for Brighton who are making slow but steady progress towards becoming an established Premier League club under his tutelage. To lose Potter at this stage in the Albion’s development would be a blow.

Finally, Wolves 2-1 Brighton may also help inform the Albion’s approach to business this summer. Part of the reason that the second half performance was such a contrast to the first is because once Dunk had been given his marching orders, there was a very clear lack of leaders on the pitch.

Had Adam Lallana or Joel Veltman been present to steady the ship with their experience, such a collapse might have been avoided. Having a young team full of promise may be exciting, but you also need some grizzled veterans in there to drive everyone on when things get tough.

Lallana and Danny Welbeck were brought in to add that last summer and the Albion may need to sign a few more experienced heads who can offer something different to the most youthful squad in the Premier League.

Veltman’s injury meant a change of shape as Potter switched to an old-fashioned 4-4-2. Alireza Jahanbakhsh made only his fourth Premier League start of the season on the right side of midfielder with Ben White out-of-position at right back and Leandro Trossard out on the left.

Despite the different look to the starting XI, Brighton were much the better side in the first half. It took just 13 minutes for the Albion to take the lead, Dunk kickstarting what would prove to be an interesting Sunday lunchtime for him personally by powering home a Pascal Gross corner to make it 1-0.

A fifth Premier League goal of the season means that Dunk has now scored 11 in the top flight since August 2017, the most of any central defender over the past four seasons. That is quite the statistic to have on the CV.

Wolves 2-1 Brighton might have gone very differently had the Albion been awarded a penalty shortly after Dunk’s opener. Dan Burn was hauled to the ground by Morgan Gibbs-White, who appeared to be making a late case for inclusion in the British and Irish Lions squad for the series in South Africa this summer with an expert rugby tackle.

Incredibly, referee Jonathan Moss saw nothing wrong with the spot of WWE grappling produced by Gibbs-White. Either that, or he suspected Brighton would miss the resulting penalty and so just decided to save everyone the faff and delay that comes with giving a spot kick.

Brighton should have had the game wrapped up by half time anyway, even after being denied that clear cut penalty. Gross was having one of those days where every set piece he delivered was perfect, leading to Dunk seeing another header brilliantly kept out by Rui Patricio followed by Webster putting an effort straight down the throat of the Wolves goalkeeper.

Neal Maupay passed up the last golden chance of the opening 45 minutes, volleying over from the edge of the box after good work from Danny Welbeck.

As the teams trooped off at half time, the three points were there for the taking for Brighton. To the neutral watching live on the BBC, there must have seemed little chance of an inexperienced Wolves side containing five players aged under 21 and three teenagers finding a way back against opponents who had been superior in every department.

Long-standing Albion observers meanwhile know exactly what this team is capable of. Within minutes of the restart, Robert Sanchez saved from Gibbs-White before Dunk received his marching orders, leaving Brighton to face the final 37 minutes with only 10 men.

It was a rare moment of bad judgement from the Albion skipper, who pulled back Fabio Silva as the young Wolves striker had a clear run at goal.

Poor play from Webster had put Dunk in the position, but even so Dunk did not need to commit a professional foul at that stage of the game. Letting Silva go one-on-one with Sanchez would have been much preferable; if Silva scores, Brighton still have nearly an entire half of football to get back into a game in which they had been dominant for much of the preceding 53 minutes.

And what if Silva missed? The young Wolves striker’s finishing has let him down at times this season and Sanchez has proven himself a fine shot stopper since succeeding Maty Ryan as number one. Silva fluffing or Sanchez saving the chance were entirely plausible outcomes.

The reaction from some Brighton fans to criticism of Dunk was as if those who questioned his decision making had slapped the Queen across the face rather than wondering if knowingly getting sent off so early in a game was a wise move.

Dunk is not above having blame apportioned to him for his part in defeat – you know that if Webster or Burn had been on the end of the red card, there would have been calls to have them publicly hung from Clock Tower on Wednesday lunchtime.

This was just a case of good footballer makes bad decision. Something which Dunk used to specialise in far more regularly and – whisper it quietly – perhaps the straw-clutching reason Gareth Southgate uses to justify his non-selection of Dunk which mystifies the rest of football.

Dunk after all has been sent off more times than any other player in England over the course of the past eight seasons. That is quite the statistic to have on the CV.

Potter’s response to the red card was interesting. White shifted to centre back alongside Webster, Gross dropped in at right back and Alexis Mac Allister and Jakub Moder replaced Jahanbakhsh and Trossard.

The Albion now had no natural width at all. Nuno appeared to realise this very quickly and so on came Adama Traore, a player who had caused Burn to score an own goal, give away a penalty and pick up a booking in one of the all-time great Seagulls performances during Brighton 3-3 Wolves at the Amex in January.

No prizes for guessing who got the Wolves equaliser. Traore exchanged passes with Silva in the Albion box to smash an effort past Sanchez with 13 minutes remaining.

Sanchez had earlier saved well from a Joao Moutinho volley as it was one-way traffic towards the Brighton goal. Gross reminded everyone that he was very much playing out-of-position when losing possession to Traore who rounded Sanchez to tee up Gibbs-White but somehow Gibbs-White fired over from 10 yards.

It looked like the Albion might make it to full time after that let off. Had they been capable of looking after the ball better – quick reminder Davy Propper was an unused substitute – or smashing it into the corners, then they might well have done.

Instead, the game ticked into the 90th minute when there was familiar late heartbreak. Gibbs-White was the scorer, atoning for that earlier miss when beating Sanchez with a shot rifled into the top corner from the left hand side of the box.

To then round off a pretty miserable 45 minutes and a first ever defeat against Wolves in the top flight, Maupay was shown a straight red card after the final whistle for confronting Mr Moss with foul and abusive language.

Potter was unimpressed with the actions of his French striker, offering a very rare public rebuke of a player. “I think Neal’s red card was for speaking to the ref, he is frustrated, I don’t know what’s been said but he needs to be able to to handle that better.”

Maupay is not the only one with a lesson to learn. Brighton can take much from their 2-1 defeat to Wolves which can help make them a better side in the long run. The result at Molineux does not matter; what Potter and the Albion learned in the West Midlands does.