Wolves 1-4 Brighton: You can buy our players, but not our spirit

Whilst Albion fans at Molineux could scarcely believe what they were witnessing as three goals were scored during 10 second half minutes of Wolves 1-4 Brighton, Gary Lineker was reaching for his phone and firing up Twitter.

“Brighton are playing like Brazil” the BBC Match of the Day presenter said. Not true, Gary; Brazil can only wish they were capable of playing football like Brighton.

Since Roberto De Zerbi arrived at the Amex, we have become accustomed to scintillating football. But even by the standards set over the past 10 months, that period immediately after the break in which the Albion blew their hosts away was out of this world.

Despite a troubled summer in which Gary O’Neil replaced Julen Lopetegui as manager just four days before the opening league game of the season, the Old Gold had gone and outplayed Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday night.

Wolves are no slouches. They have a point to prove to the rest of the Premier League having been written off by many. This was O’Neil’s first home game in charge.

On paper, it looked like a tough challenge for the Albion. At times in the first half, it was. Wolves were arguably the better side for a good 20 minutes before the break.

Yet here we are. Brighton & Hove Albion top of the Premier League table with six points from two games, eight goals scored and only two conceded.

And £115 million richer than they were a week ago. How many other clubs could sell a star player like Moises Caicedo on Tuesday and then put in a performance and result like Wolves 1-4 Brighton on Saturday?

Early days it might be, but all those Chelsea fans who said “wE’rE hAvInG a pARtY wHeN bRigHtOn aRe rEleGAteD” look a long way from cracking open their Smirnoff Ice in celebration at the Albion heading to the Championship.

As De Zerbi said just before Caicedo completed his British record move to Stamford Bridge: “Bigger clubs can buy our players but they can’t buy our soul or spirit.”

Any of those bigger clubs watching Wolves 1-4 Brighton would have been hard pressed to know which player to target next from the Albion.

Julio Enciso ran the show at number 10 and ended the afternoon with two assists. Solly March bagged a brace to become the top scorer in the Premier League this season.

Gareth Southgate was watching on from the stands, no doubt desperately trying to think of excuses not to pick March for England’s September international fixtures against Ukraine and Scotland.

Billy Gilmour continued where he had left off at the end of last season. Just one pass from Gilmour failed to find a teammate as he completed 69 out of an attempted 70, including a 100 percent success rate with passes in the final third.

Pervis Estupinan scored as a part of an all-action display up and down the flank, reaffirming his place as the best left back in the Premier League. A quick reminder that the Albion sold Marc Cucurella to Chelsea for £62 million and replaced him with Estupinan for £15 million.

And then there is Kaoru Mitoma, who opened the scoring on 17 minutes with a magnificent solo goal reminiscent of Diego Maradona against England at the 1986 World Cup (the one without the use of hand).

Mitoma picked up possession out on the left flank just inside the Wolves half. From there, he ran 776 miles past 27 Wolves players faster than Concorde before beating home goalkeeper Jose Sa to score the greatest individual goal football has ever seen. Or at least that is what it felt like.

The speed, the balance, the skill… not many players in world football could produce a moment of individual brilliance quite like it.

Then again, not many players in world football wrote a thesis on dribbling as part of their degree. Kind of makes me wish I had taken university as seriously as Mitoma, rather than spending hours watching Home & Away, trying to win the Champions League with Cheltenham Town on Football Manager and eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers with magic mushrooms in.

Wolves had two big chances to equalise in the time between Mitoma’s goal and the break. Jason Steele stretched out a right boot to divert a Fabio Silva one-on-one around the post. Rayan Ait-Nouri then fired miles over the bar when he should have at least hit the target with only Steele to beat.

Going into half time and the Old Gold had enjoyed more possession than Brighton and recorded twice as many efforts on goal.

March made it public knowledge following Brighton 4-1 Luton a week ago that De Zerbi had told the Albion they should be having 20 to 30 shots per game.

To reach that target at Molineux, Brighton needed to improve when returning to the field after their half time oranges. Three goals in the space of nine minutes was certainly one way of doing so.

Just 120 seconds of the second half had expired when Estupinan moved the Albion 2-0 ahead. March released Danny Welbeck, whose powerful effort was repelled by Sa into the path of Mitoma.

The Japanese Bullet Train could have gone for goal himself from the rebound. Instead, he pulled the ball back into the path of the onrushing Estupinan in a more central position to lash home.

Goal three arrived four minutes later from some blistering counter attacking football. Gilmour raked a 40 yard pass down the left channel to send Enciso scampering away.

Back in February, there would have been a 50-50 chance of Enciso choosing the wrong option in such a scenario and a promising opening going to waste.

Not so now. Enciso’s decision making has improved beyond belief these past six months. The outside of the right boot pass he fed into the box when the temptation might have been to shoot was perfectly placed and weighted between two Wolves defenders for March to fire first time beyond Sa.

The fourth Albion goal came from an attack down the opposite flank. Welbeck embarked on a mazy run, carrying the ball from one side to the other. Enciso drifted wide to collect a pass from Dat Guy before slipping another perfect low cross into March.

Rather than going for power as he had first time around, March opted for placement. His trusty left foot guided the ball into the bottom corner to leave Molineux a mixture of shell shocked and seething.

Wolves fans began streaming out at that point. They had at least lasted until 55 minutes of watching their side against Brighton, unlike at the Amex back in April when the away end began to empty before half time with the Albion on their merry way to scoring six.

Those Old Gold supporters who remained did at least see their side score on this occasion. Terrible marking from a corner left Hwang free at the back post to place a header beyond Steele which made it Wolves 1-4 Brighton.

The guilty Brighton party? Either Enciso or Lewis Dunk should have been picking Hwang up. Whereas Dunk went mad when the ball hit the back of the net, Southgate probably breathed a sigh of relief in the director’s box at having been given a flimsy reason to pick Harry Maguire over the Albion captain next month.

Hwang’s header proved nothing more than a consolation for Wolves, whose miserable afternoon was rounded off when Matheus Nunes saw red in stoppage time.

Not content with having pushed Adam Webster to the ground after Brighton successfully defended a ball into the box, Nunes then barged Estupinan over.

Both Brighton players lay almost on top of each other in a confused heap, as if they were a jobbing WWE tag team just wiped out by The Undertaker.

A bizarre end to an afternoon in which Brighton were better than Brazil.