Forest 2-3 Brighton: Crazy, chaotic win for 10 man Albion

Roberto De Zerbi has overseen seem pretty eye catching results in his time at the helm of the good ship Albion, but Nottingham Forest 2-3 Brighton might just be the most impressive of the lot.

The Seagulls were missing 10 first team regulars to injury and Mahmoud Dahoud to suspension. Ansu Fati and Tariq Lamptey limped off before half time at the City Ground.

Lewis Dunk then lost his mind, picking up a straight red card for appearing to call referee Anthony Taylor either “a bald prick” or “a bellend” depending on which lip reading expert you believe.

That left Brighton to try and defend a one-goal lead against a resurgent Forest with only 10 men for the final 17 minutes plus 10 minutes of stoppage time.

Nottingham Forest is not an easy place to go at the best of times, let alone with all that happening. And then you consider the fact Brighton had not won a Premier League game since the end of September, a seven game run which was the worst of the De Zerbi Era.

No wonder De Zerbi and his players celebrated like they had won the Champions League at the final whistle, much to the horror of home fans and all those members of the celebration police on Twitter.

This was a big victory given the circumstances. One which De Zerbi will hope gets the Premier League season back on track – although quite how he fields a starting XI for Chelsea away next weekend remains to be seen with 12 now injured, two suspended and Joel Veltman and Jan Paul van Hecke the only available senior defenders.

No doubt De Zerbi will begin pondering on Sunday morning as he enjoys a shot of espresso and working his way through 20 Marlboro Lights.

Before that, he and the players deserved to enjoy their Saturday night. They gave the travelling Brighton support a day nobody is going to forget in a hurry, Forest 2-3 Brighton almost being in the Leonardo Ulloa last minute winner category of afternoons at the City Ground in terms of drama and chaos.

Things did not get off to the best of starts when Forest took the lead after only three minutes. Fati lost possession, Lamptey was nowhere to be seen at left back, Morgan Gibbs-White crossed and Anthony Elanga powered a free header at the back post beyond Bart Verbruggen.

That made it 13 Premier League games played and not a single clean sheet for the Albion. Right now, it feels as though it will be 2083 and the coronation of Prince George’s first child before Brighton record another shutout.

The flip side of that of course is that you always feel a De Zerbi team are going to get at least one goal of their own.

And when Evan Ferguson equalised on 25 minutes, the Albion became the first top flight side since Manchester United in the 1958-59 season to both score and concede in 17 consecutive matches.

Billy Gilmour found Pascal Gross, who swept a typically precise pass into the feet of Ferguson on the edge of the box.

Ferguson took a touch, set himself and guided the ball into the bottom corner of the Forest net. In doing so, he tied Wayne Rooney’s record of 11 Premier League goals scored by a teenager in a calendar year. Not bad company to be in.

Fati had departed the action five minutes earlier to be replaced by the Albion’s newly capped Brazilian international, Joao Pedro.

Lamptey then went on 34 minutes. Even with the paucity of options to play left back, throwing someone with as questionable a fitness record as Lamptey in from the start having not played a minute of competitive football for over seven weeks was always a risk.

His place was taken by Jack Hinshelwood, who looked at times like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Not that the disruption seemed to overly impact Brighton as Pedro headed them into the lead in first half stoppage time.

Gross was again the architect, justifying De Zerbi’s decision to keep him in midfield when he could have provided an alternative at left back.

A beautiful, curling cross from Der Kaiser was perfect for Pedro to nod powerfully beyond Forest goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos. Try spelling that on a hangover.

De Zerbi had been warned in the week leading up to Forest 2-3 Brighton following his comments about disliking 80 percent of referees in England.

It looked for a short while like Mr Taylor might be in the 20 percent of officials De Zerbi does not mind when he awarded the Albion a penalty midway just before the hour mark.

Dunk headed a Gross free kick across goal and as Pedro tried to reach it, former Seagulls striker Chris Wood hauled Pedro to the ground.

Wood has scored what feels like 100 goals past Brighton for the likes of Birmingham City, The Leeds United, Milllllllllll, Leicester City and Burnley since his 2010-11 loan spell ended. It made a refreshing change to see him doing something helpful for the Albion.

Pedro dusted himself down and after a lengthy delay caused by VAR presumably trying to stick its beak into a decision which looked pretty clear cut, despatched the penalty.

If Brighton thought moving 3-1 ahead would kill the game, they were mistaken. The City Ground responded by raising the noise levels and Forest used that as inspiration to dominate the final 25 minutes.

Which is where the fun really began. Mr Taylor waved away protests that Callum Hudson-Odoi had been pulled to the ground by Hinshelwood as both tried to reach a pretty harmless cross into the box.

This time, VAR did find a reason to punish the Albion and sent Mr Taylor to the screen. He duly changed his opinion on whether or not Hinshelwood had fouled and pointed to the spot, sparking a total meltdown in Dunk.

First, the yellow card came out for dissent. Then Dunk uttered that sentence about Mr Taylor’s lack of hair (or called him a bellend) which will be immortalised forever more.

We can laugh now at what transpired, but had the afternoon ended in defeat for the Albion rather than a final score of Forest 2-3 Brighton, it would have been on Dunk.

A red card for mouthing off – twice – at a referee is unacceptable at the best of times. A red card for doing so having been booked 10 seconds earlier for the same offence, when you are the captain, most experienced player, leading 3-1 in a tough away game and in the middle of an injury crisis so cannot afford any sort of suspension is beyond stupid.

Dunk has enough credit in the Brighton bank for that to be the end of it. According to De Zerbi, Dunk apologised to his teammates afterwards.

Judging by the reactions of Pedro and Jan Paul van Hecke at the time the red card came out, they were as shocked and confused as anyone else.

When you hear your captain call the referee a bald prick #BHAFC pic.twitter.com/eeU8Ex18jF

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) November 25, 2023

Once Dunk had traipsed off, Gibbs-White fired the penalty into the bottom corner to make it Forest 2-3 Brighton. A nervy finish lay in store.

The Albion now had to negotiate the time remaining with a back four of Gross, Veltman, Van Hecke and Hinshelwood. Jakub Moder came on in midfield for his first appearance since April 2022; talk about being thrown in at the deep end.

Brighton needed cool heads and leadership now and the outstanding Van Hecke did more than anyone to provide it. He looked every bit a future Albion captain, stepping up to the plate to marshal that makeshift defence through to the end.

When that end eventually came and Mr Taylor blew the final whistle, De Zerbi sprinted the 50 yards from the dugout over to the away end.

It was a celebration of pride in what his players had achieved against all the odds and relief that for the first time since Brighton 3-1 Bournemouth two months ago, the Albion had three Premier League points on the board.

Now all De Zerbi has to do is try and find 11 bodies fit enough to take on AEK Athens on Thursday night. Easy, right?