Man United 1-2 Brighton: Albion leave Ten Hag tearing his hair out

Man United 1-2 Brighton was not how the 2022-23 Premier League season was supposed to kick off. This was meant to be the beginning of a brave new era at Old Trafford, the start of the Red Devils journey back towards challenging for titles and silverware under new manager Erik ten Hag.

Instead, there was only one team on show at the Theatre of Dreams who looked like they would spend the campaign being upwardly mobile – the boys in blue from Good Old Sussex by the Sea.

Brighton have sold two of their best players this summer, bringing £87 million into the club. No signings have been made so far to replace either Yves Bissouma or Marc Cucurella and there were no new faces in the starting XI Graham Potter named for Man United 1-2 Brighton.

And yet here they were, winning a game at Old Trafford for the first time ever. Nobody can doubt that Brighton have clever owners, a clever recruitment strategy and on his day, a very clever manager.

Potter got everything spot on against United. There was no sign of the selection roulette wheel that one year ago on the opening weekend of the season landed Brighton with Pascal Gross at left back and Adam Webster at right back for the trip to Burnley.

The peculiar 3-3-3-1 formation which delivered so much joy in the final eight Premier League games of 2021-22 remained. Brighton should keep playing this way for as long as the rest of the top flight cannot work out a means to counter it.

Only Manchester City have managed to defeat the Albion since the start of April, a run of results which includes victories at home to West Ham, away against Spurs, Arsenal and Wolves, and now home and away to United.

Potter was also shrewd enough to change his approach slightly for Man United 1-2 Brighton, something which Ten Hag admitted caught him and his players by surprise.

First, the Albion took noticeably more shots from outside the box than they had in 2021-22. Most were blocked, but fans will no doubt welcome this if it sticks as a tactic. Who knows, we might even be allowed to shout SHOOT at the Amex in 2022-23.

Second, Brighton hit longer passes than normal as Ten Hag pointed out in his post-match interview. This was met by a frosty reception from some Albion fans, who seemingly took umbrage with somebody suggesting Brighton were not a tippy-tappy passing team.

Why? Ten Hag was right to a degree. And Brighton were fully justified in their different style as it utilised the strengths of the outstanding Danny Welbeck and helped get Leandro Trossard and Solly March frequently into the game.

Ten Hag will not last long in the Premier League if he complains at an opposition manager compromising slightly on their normal approach to get a result at Old Trafford.

He needs to stop tearing his hair out and instead give Potter the credit he deserves for formulating a game plan which outthought his own.

Welcome to England, where what happens is a million miles away from the Eredivisie. Just ask Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Brighton flashed an early warning sign when Trossard got away inside the opening minute and fired into the side of netting.

Not much happened from that point onwards until the half hour mark, save for Bruno Fernandes nearly killing someone in the upper tier when he lent back and fired over from a good position.

It then became the Pascal Gross show as two goals from Der Kaiser in the final 15 minutes of the first half stunned United and Ten Hag.

Trossard hit one of those longer passes Ten Hag was surprised by, drilling the ball 25 yards through a woefully positioned United defence to Danny Welebck.

Dat Guy reached the by-line and crossed low and hard; too hard for Adam Lallana to get onto but just right for Gross arriving at the back post to slam home.

There was a VAR check for offside. Even though Welbeck was just about on, this was Manchester United. The officials normally find any excuse possible to give the Red Devils a helping hand against the Albion. It was therefore a bit of a surprise that the goal stood.

One became two 10 minutes later with a move which swept from Brighton defence to attack via some, er, longer passes than normal.

Trossard started it with a backheel in the Albion left back position. Moises Caicedo broke forward and passed down the line to Gross.

Gross played a 20 yard pass inside to Lallana. He went right to March, who cut inside and drilled a low shot parried by David De Gea.

Despite his well-known lack of pace, Gross had managed to cover the 50 yards up the pitch from where he had first released Lallana as quickly as the Albion had moved the ball around.

That left him on hand to steer the rebound into the United net, shocking the Stretford End. Albion fans were less surprised.

If there is one thing Gross loves in life, it is a goal against Manchester United. He now has six against the Red Devils in six years as a Brighton player.

There are few better sounds in world football than 75,000 United fans booing their side off at Old Trafford. For the second season running, the travelling Albion support were treated to the spectacle. They loved every second.

Last year of course United turned things around, beating Brighton 2-0 with a little help from the referee and VAR.

They were unable to repeat the trick this time, although there was still a controversial moment of officiating which looked like it could have had a huge bearing on the outcome when it happened.

Lisandro Martinez was enjoying a torrid debut at the heart of the United defence. He clumsily barged Welbeck over in the box just before the hour mark.

At any ground in the country other than Old Trafford, the away team gets a penalty. This being Manchester United, referee Paul Tierney waved play on and VAR did not even bother to look.

In the unlikely event that Brighton had actually scored the spot kick, they would have been 3-0 ahead and the game would have been dead.

Instead, it became Man United 1-2 Brighton shortly after to leave a tense last 20 minutes. Over came a corner, Robert Sanchez got nowhere near it, Harry Maguire bundled the ball towards the line and Alexis Mac Allister eventually sliced in an own goal during the ensuing melee.

Sanchez screamed he had been impeded by Diogo Dalot. Even someone wearing the most blue and white tinted spectacles would struggle to agree. VAR looked for a handball against Dalot but in a total shock found nothing and the goal stood.

The mistake caused Sanchez to go through one of his funny five minutes. He had earlier produced a stunning one-on-one block from Marcus Rashford but then began fumbling things that were routine catches.

Joel Veltman should expect a few pints of Heineken from Sanchez for the dependable Dutchman’s work in hacking clear when another Rashford shot was poorly parried.

Once Sanchez settled, so did Brighton. Lewis Dunk had to make one superb sliding block from Martinez, ending with him sitting on the ball. To complete a surreal exchange, Dunk produced a textbook backwards roll to return to his feet.

Yes, Brighton were that good that their captain felt comfortable enough to start practicing his bid to join Team GB’s gymnastics squad for the Paris Olympics in two years time.

When Tan Hag decided to make a triple change in the 90th minute and throw on three kids nobody – not even some United fans – had ever heard of, the game was up.

A thousand pictures were taken of the Old Trafford scoreboard at full time, showing Man United 1-2 Brighton. “We’re all going on a European Tour” belted out from the away end long after the home sections had emptied of disappointed United fans heading home to Surrey on the M6.

It capped a marvellous week for Potter. On Thursday, he thoroughly enjoyed Dave’s poem at the Brighton Fans’ Forum berating the club for introducing a £2.50 fee to print tickets at home.

On Sunday, he became the first ever Brighton manager to oversee a win at Old Trafford. The Albion under Potter keep making history. How much more might we see over the next 37 games?