Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton: Fired up Pedro tops player ratings

Joao Pedro is a special player. One goal and one assist in Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton underlined his match winning talent, led the Albion to three points and put Pedro top of the player ratings.

Just to endear himself even further to Seagulls supporters, Pedro then came out afterwards and said he was particularly motivated by stuff he had read on the internet from Plucky Little Bournemouth.

This referenced the social media post put up by the Cherries ahead of the game. It claimed Bournemouth is “proper seaside” alongside a graphic of Igor Julio selling ice creams.

Having put the Cherries to the sword on-the-pitch, Pedro uploaded an Instagram story with an emoji of himself eating an ice cream.

Point made and Plucky Little Bournemouth won’t be making the mistake of riling up Pedro or the Albion again. Here are your Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton player ratings.

Bart Verbruggen – 8.00

Storm Bert provided the worst possible conditions for a goalkeeper. Verbruggen though took it all in his stride. Couple of big saves, claimed crosses impeccably despite the wind and was excellent with the ball at his feet.

Joel Veltman – 7.13

Played his part in a robust defensive performance by keeping Antoine Semenyo relatively quiet – a task more glamorous right backs have failed at this season.

Jan Paul van Hecke – 7.63

Perfect positioning to catch the Cherries offside for their disallowed first half goal. His ability on the ball has been much heralded this season but here it was his defensive strengths which shone.

Igor Julio – 7.50

Igor, Igor, Igor! In a pre-match poll WAB ran, over 55 percent said Igor should keep his place even when Lewis Dunk is fit and ready to return. Tells you everything you need to know about how good he has been since getting an unexpected run in the side.

Pervis Estupinan – 7.25

Fabian Hurzeler would probably have preferred not to start Estupinan after international duty but had little choice with Ferdi Kadioglu injured. Estupinan delivered a fine display with no indication he only stepped off a flight back from South America on Thursday.

Carlos Baleba – 5.50

His sending off provided one of the major talking points from the game. Hurzeler said the second yellow card was “not right” and whilst most Albion supporters would agree, Baleba found himself as the lowest scoring player in the Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton ratings.

Yasin Ayari – 6.38

The second Brighton goal was all about the pass from Pedro into Kaoru Mitoma. But the Albion would not have had possession in the first place had Ayari not won the ball back.

Georginio Rutter 7.38

Another ridiculous reaction to a Seagulls win caught on camera in the tunnel afterwards should be enough for Rutter to score 10s all round in the Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton ratings. On the pitch, Rutter played a part in the first goal via some nice link up with Pedro and Danny Welbeck.

JOAO PEDRO – 8.38

Poacher’s finish when tucking home a close-range rebound to open the scoring. And if Bruno Fernandes makes the world class pass which set up Mitoma for the second, it would be played on a constant loop by Sky Sports News for the next seven months. An all-round brilliant performance.

Kaoru Mitoma – 7.75

Whilst Brighton have a largely terrible record against Bournemouth, there is something about facing the Cherries which Mitoma likes. Four goals in four career appearances facing them now thanks to a clinical, clever finish drilled across Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Danny Welbeck – 6.88

Welbz is Dat Guy. No goals or assists means he doesn’t score as highly as in recent weeks. He still though played roles in both goals and caused the Bournemouth defence plenty of problems.

Simon Adingra – 5.50

Adingra took over from Rutter who was on a yellow when Hurzeler decided he could not risk a second Brighton red card. Needed to do better in looking after the ball with the Albion coming under increasing pressure as the game ticked towards the 90.

Mats Wieffer – 6.50

Exactly the sort of cameo from the bench Wieffer needed after that disaster against Wolves the last time Brighton were hanging onto a 2-0 lead. Shored up the midfield with Baleba off, doing a solid job sitting in front of the defence.

Matt O’Riley – 5.88

Injected much needed fresh legs at a time when Brighton were starting to tire.

The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.