Brighton 2-1 Leicester: Walkers crisps extra salty this week

Walkers are the crisp of choice at WAB Towers. Prawn cocktail is the favourite, closely followed by any variation of Monster Munch. We will probably be avoiding ready salted for the foreseeable future on account of the amount of salt being spilled by Leicester City fans, which may find its way into a bag of potato chips following their 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion. It’s bad for your health, don’t you know?

Leicester’s most famous son other than Adrian Mole is Gary Lineker and he led the complaints afterwards, tweeting: “VAR has completely buried Leicester today. Unbelievably unfair.”

To try and claim that VAR was the reason Leicester lost is nearly as bogus as £350 million for the NHS or an attendance at Brighton 2-1 Leicester of 31,078.

Yes, the club really did say over thirty thousands of us braved rail replacement buses, the London to Brighton bike ride, Freshers moving into both universities and a Race 4 Life event in Stanmer Park to attend. Fair play to the five thousand or more who turned up dressed wearing very convincing empty seat outfits.

As for Lineker’s claims, it was the on-field linesman rather than some bloke watching on a monitor at Stockley Park who spotted Harvey Barnes offside twice in identical fashion from Leicester corners in the second half.

It was also a linesman who told referee Stuart Attwell he should award the Albion their first half penalty. All that VAR did is confirm the officials got their decision making spot on. Which is exactly what it was brought in for in the first place. Lineker’s post-match tears smacked of bias and nothing else. Bless him.

Whilst the officials provided a convenient scapegoat for Leicester in losing to a team like Brighton, the Albion were much the better side in the first half and should have been two or three ahead rather than just the one provided by Neal Maupay from the penalty spot.

Brighton then had to show a different quality in the second half as they faced down wave after wave of Leicester attacks. Somehow, the Albion survived.

We seem to be saying it every week at the moment, but this is exactly the sort of game that would have been lost a year ago. Graham Potter and his players have come on leaps and bounds in the past year.

Their pretty passing football is now matched by a more streetwise approach, enabling the Albion to overcome even the best sides in the Premier League.

The North Stand sang in jest about going on a European tour and pundits and fans of other clubs might point out that Leicester aside, Brighton are yet to face many stern tests yet.

But is it really that far fetched to imagine the Seagulls soaring into the top six followed by Thursday nights in Belarus and Ukraine in the autumn of 2022? West Ham and Leicester themselves have shown it can be done, so why not Brighton?

The Albion had several good chances to take the lead inside the opening 30 minutes. They were guilty of not taking shots on early enough for a couple of those and then when Adam Lallana did decide to get an effort away from a very good position inside the Leicester box, he fired over.

It looked at that point like Brighton would need a helping hand to open the scoring. That literally happened when Shane Duffy met a delivery into the box with a towering header which Jannik Vestergaard turned away with his hand.

Initially, Mr Attwell gave a corner but after consulting his eagle eyed linesman who had spotted the use of arm, he changed the decision to a penalty.

VAR confirmed the handball and despite vehement Leicester appeals led by Kasper Schmeichel who appeared to be having some sort of disintegration, it was left to Maupay to beat Schmeichel from 12 yards.

That was not a forgone conclusion of course. Schmeichel has an outstanding penalty saving record against Brighton, having denied Ashley Barnes, Glenn Murray and Maupay himself over the past nine years.

There was no keeping out Maupay’s spot kick this time, brutally despatched by a man playing confidently and in the best form of his Albion career.

Brighton looked like they were going to suffer a blow when the outstanding Yves Bissouma took a heavy knock to his knee with half time approaching and Enock Mwepu prepared to replace him.

Thankfully, Bissouma made it to the break and the medical team used the 15 minutes to work their magic and get him back out for the second half.

How different might Brighton 2-1 Leicester have been if the Albion had been forced to play over 45 minutes within the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League? Very is the answer to that, as we saw once Bissouma did eventually exit proceedings with around a quarter of an hour remaining.

Without him, the game turned even more in Leicester’s favour. Brighton could not seem to either win possession or keep it, with Mwepu the chief culprit.

A lot of Albion fans berated The Computer afterwards and although it did look like somebody needed to press Ctrl Alt Del, the criticism seemed wildly over the top.

Mwepu is a midfielder finding his feet in the Premier League, where the pace and quality of the game is unlike anything he would have experienced before.

It will take him time to adapt, just as it took Bissouma 18 months in England to become a first team regular. To write Mwepu off already is silly.

Brighton scored that all important second goal with five minutes of the second half played. A clumsy tackle out on the right gave Leandro Trossard the opportunity to whip over a free kick, met by a brilliant header from Danny Welbeck which gave Schmeichel no chance.

Going two behind sprang Leicester into life and they were much the better team for the last half hour. Much like in the previous week’s 1-0 win at Brentford, Brighton had to dig deep and defend with Duffy leading the way and Robert Sanchez making one outrageous save at full stretch.

Nothing could be done when Jamie Vardy got his usual goal against the Albion when slamming home from close range after a neat passing move involving Ricardo Pereira, Ademola Lookman and Youri Tielemans carved Brighton apart.

Then came the first disallowed Leicester goal. Lookman fired home following a bit of a scramble from a corner, only for the linesman to flag for offside due to Harvey Barnes getting in the way of Sanchez.

For that to happen once is unfortunate. For Barnes to then do the exact same thing with five minutes remaining was plain and simple stupidity, this time ensuring that Wilfred Ndidi’s effort was ruled out for offside.

Rather than directing their ire at the officials and VAR, Leicester fans and Lineker would be better off questioning why a highly paid professional footballer managed to commit the same offside offence twice in 30 minutes to deny them two goals.

Barnes was as a big reason for it finishing Brighton 2-1 Leicester as anyone involved in the officiating. If anyone happens to see him in a pub anytime soon, please get him a decent continental lager and a bag of Kettle Chips. Not Walkers, too salty.

He also made Schmeichel look very stupid. The Leicester goalkeeper had given it the big one to the North Stand when the second of those disallowed goals had hit the back of the net, only to then lose his mind once again when it was ruled out.

In a sign of what a sporting chap he is, Schmeichel then stopped any of his teammates from shaking Mr Attwell’s hands once the full time whistle had blown. You stay classy, Kasper. We will keep the three points.

What would have been a fair result at the Amex? A draw perhaps. In that regard, you could understand the frustration of Schmeichel, Leicester and Lineker at the full time score being Brighton 2-1 Leicester.

Take nothing away from Brighton, though. A first Premier League win over Leicester in nine attempts lifting the Albion into fourth spot is the real story here, not the salty tears of the Foxes and their followers.

These are heady days to be a Seagull and it genuinely feels like something special is being built on the Sussex coast this season. Of course, the feelgood factor will probably come to a juddering halt next week.

Are you even a Brighton fan if you are not expecting Crystal Palace to be the team to end the Albion’s flying start via a win 1-0 secured by a 94th minute own goal?