Brighton 1-5 Everton: Dyche decimates Albion at Amex again

On the Friday before Brighton 1-5 Everton, the Albion announced in a statement on their website that they were choosing to ignore a recommendation from the Independent Football Ombudsman into their treatment of a supporter.

The IFO is there to look at disputes between fans and clubs. In this case, the IFO decided that Brighton should apologise to said supporter and revoke the 10 game ban handed out for the way in which they handled an inadvertent breach of the away ticketing policy.

Unfortunately, recommendations by the IFO are only advisable and so even if an independent body says the Albion are in the wrong, the Albion can ignore it.

Or incredibly in this case, go further by insisting they were correct, the ombudsman was wrong and then plastering on the internet the name of the supporter (since removed) who had the nerve to question the decision via the IFO in a potential breaking of data protection laws.

When football clubs can act as judge, jury and executioner and continue to mark their own homework, it is little wonder Brighton and the rest of the Premier League are so frightened of an independent football regulator with actual powers overseeing the sport.

If only it were as easy to overrule results on the pitch as it is those from the IFO. The Albion could then ignore Brighton 1-5 Everton and the latest decimation at the Amex delivered by Sean Dyche.

Seagulls supporters of a certain vintage knew facing the Toffees would be difficult. It is the Albion way to follow sublime football and incredible results with defeat in a game the rest of the world expects them to win.

After beating Wolves 6-0 and the unbridled joy that came with a 98th minute winner against Manchester United, it would therefore be #TypicalBrighton to go and lose to a Toffees outfit 19th in the table who had scored just 16 times in five months since the World Cup.

When we floated this theory on the morning of Brighton 1-5 Everton, the general response was: “Things are different under Roberto De Zerbi.”

That is what we all hoped. But it turns out that even with an elite level manager and the best squad of players Brighton have ever had, that uncanny ability to beat the best and lose to the strugglers within four days of each other remains.

Brighton 1-5 Everton now has his own place in #TypicalBrighton folklore. Welcome to the club, alongside eliminating Manchester City from the League Cup having just lost 1-0 to nine-man Walsall and following up an 8-0 win over Northwich Victoria by going down 1-0 at home to Tranmere Rovers.

The Dyche factor was another reason to be wary of Everton. Stone Cold Sean has never lost a Premier League game at the Amex, even last season when his Burnley side ended up relegated.

The Clarets had not won a single game on the road until they arrived in Sussex in late February, blowing Brighton away 3-0.

There is something about facing a Dyche-managed side which the Albion struggle with, even in this most brilliant of campaigns for the Seagulls.

Most of those Albion fans expecting defeat because of the whole #TypicalBrighton thing thought it would be undeserved, a result of Dyche and Everton shithousing their way to victory ala Aston Villa and Fulham earlier in the campaign.

The reality though is that Dyche set his side up perfectly to play against DeZerbiBall. The Toffees were brilliant on the counter, ruthlessly taking advantage of the gaps and holes that Brighton’s commitment to attacking football leaves.

Everton were deserved winners, even with a serious second half improvement from the Albion. That came after De Zerbi made a quadruple substitution, suggesting he got his his starting XI wrong.

Nobody is above criticism, not even this most popular of Albion head coaches who arrived at the game wearing a pair of sunglasses and looking as cool and menacing as Al Pacino in The Godfather. De Zerbi was done tactically by Dyche, with lessons to be learned.

That being said, the Brighton boss was not helped by his players making uncharacteristic mistakes left, right and centre. Maybe the exertions of the past nine days in beating Wolves and United caught up with them. Or maybe they underestimated the threat posed by Everton.

If it were the latter and the Albion thought all they had to do was turn up to win, they were given a very rude awakening with only 34 seconds on the clock.

Gareth Southgate had been at the Amex to watch a Lewis Dunk defensive masterclass on Thursday against United. If the England manager had come to Brighton in the hope of finding justification for not selecting Dunk, then he picked the wrong game. He should have come to Everton at home.

The Albion captain had a rare nightmare 90 minutes, beginning when he was turned by Dominic Calvert-Lewin as Everton came forward having won the ball off Kaoru Mitoma virtually from kick off.

Calvert-Lewin raced 30 yards towards the by-line in the space which subsequently opened in front of him and crossed low and hard to the back post.

Adam Webster had failed to track Abdoulaye Doucoure and he tapped in at the far post to give the Toffees the lead.

Brighton responded reasonably well to going behind and dominated the next 10 minutes without ever really testing Jordan Pickford.

Everton continued to look dangerous on the break and it was a blistering counter which doubled their advantage on the half hour mark.

Pascal Gross lost the ball inside the Toffees half, leaving Dwight McNeil a good 70 yards to charge forward into the now-vacant Brighton right back area.

Webster tried to chase McNeil and Dunk got drawn to defend the middle of the box as a cross came in. McNeil delivered deep and with Pervis Estupinan nowhere to be seen, Doucoure volleyed his and Everton’s second past Jason Steele.

You might have thought at this point that Brighton would wake up to the threat posed by Everton on the break. But no. Five minutes later and another counter attack made it 3-0.

McNeil weaved his way past Gross and Webster and delivered a cross pulled back into the box. It hit the leg of Steele and went in at the near post.

Remarkably, the match report on the official Albion website credits the goal to McNeil rather than it going down as a Steele own goal. Almost as much bollocks as the club’s response to the IFO.

With superb timing, £30 million record signing Joao Pedro was paraded around the pitch at half time. “What the hell have I signed up for here?” the Brazilian forward must have been thinking, watching his new teammates 3-0 down inside of 35 minutes. Don’t worry Joao, it is not always like this. Honest.

De Zerbi’s mass changes at the intveral saw the introduction Levi Colwill, Solly March, Julio Enciso and Evan Ferguson for Webster, Facundo Buonanotte, Deniz Undav and Danny Welbeck.

There were noticeable gaps around the Amex at the start of the second half, suggesting some Albion fans had abandoned ship in similar fashion to those Wolves supporters nine days earlier.

Those who left missed Pickford come to the fore, showcasing the goalkeeping ability which makes him England’s undoubted number one.

Without Pickford, it could have feasibly finished 5-5 – not that Brighton deserved anything. Within two minutes of the restart, Enciso and Mitoma combined to feed March for a shot repelled on the stretch by Pickford.

Gross then crossed to Ferguson, whose towering close-range header at the back post was pushed onto the post via a brilliant reaction save from Pickford.

Ferguson was again denied by the feintest of Pickford fingers pushing a powerful drive from a tight angle onto the crossbar.

Alexis Mac Allister met the resulting corner with a flicked header which beat Pickford but not the woodwork, the bar again left rattling.

Everton still remained a threat on the break and their fourth goal with 14 minutes remaining summed up the evening for Brighton.

March injured himself falling over with a hamstring problem which may have brought an early end to his outstanding season.

Alex Iwobi countered down the left and slipped in McNeil. Dunk attempted to make a sliding tackle right in front of Steele but McNeil simply turned inside the Albion captain, dribbled around Steele who had been left unsighted by Dunk and walked the ball into the empty net.

Mac Allister pulled one back three minutes later when Mitoma stretched to return a Gross cross into the area and the ball hit the Argentine World Cup winner in the head to rebound beyond Pickford.

The inquest into Brighton 1-5 Everton means that Mac Allister notching his 10th goal of the campaign has gone under the radar somewhat.

He becomes only the third Albion player to reach double figures in the Premier League era after Glenn Murray and Neal Maupay. A superb achievement for a midfielder.

The final Everton goal was delivered by McNeil in injury time. The Amex had long since emptied with heavy defeat inevitable when McNeil was fed into acres of space down the Albion left and beat Steele a little too easily at the near post.

A bad night at the office for Brighton, but European qualification still remains in the Albion’s hands. Three wins from the final five will do it with De Zerbi promising a reaction when his side go to Arsenal next weekend.

And would it not be #TypicalBrighton to go from getting hammered 5-1 at home by Everton to getting results away at the title chasing Gunners and Champions League hopefuls Newcastle United?

The Albion never make things easy. We would not have it any other way.