Southampton 0-4 Brighton: Albion don’t give sorry Saints a prayer
Who are you and what have you done with the real Albion? Southampton 0-4 Brighton was a surprisingly comfortable and professional 90 minutes from a football club who have long specialised in making a total pig’s ear out of this sort of fixture.
After two wins over Chelsea in the space of six days, it seemed gloriously inevitable that the Albion would go and lose against a Saints side not only rock bottom of the Premier League, but also threatening to break Derby County’s famous 11 point record.
Southampton came into the game on nine, meaning one more victory from their remaining 13 matches would see them avoid taking the Rams’ title as worst Premier League team ever.
That added another reason as to why Brighton would be beaten at St Mary’s. It just had to be the Albion who Southampton clambered past 11 points against, didn’t it?
No. Southampton 0-4 Brighton was as convincing an away win as you will see, admittedly against totally hopeless opposition.
And it probably should have been more convincing. Like, undoing the damage to goal difference inflicted by the 7-0 thrashing at Nottingham Forest convincing.
Aaron Ramsdale made some superb saves to prevent the Albion adding to the four they managed. Brighton also produced a couple of astonishing misses, chiefly Yankubu Minteh failing to score what amounted to an open goal from 10 yards out.
Come full time and there were actual Albion supporters who still hold a dislike of Southampton because of their arrogance during the 2010-11 League One title battle outing themselves as feeling sorry for the Saints.
That is how bad the hosts were. The worst team Brighton have faced in their eight seasons in the Premier League. Making it even more mystifying how the Albion only drew with Southampton at the Amex back in November.
A game which, lest we forget, would actually have been lost by Brighton had VAR not controversially ruled out a Cameron Archer goal for offside against Adam Armstrong, who was not interfering with play.
Other than the Albion being bailed out by Stockley Park, first half chances squandered by Brighton was the main story of that disappointing Friday night. Fast forward three months and it was a similar tale through the opening 20 minutes.
Baleba sent a free kick onto the roof of the net. Kaoru Mitoma could only steer wide a Yasin Ayari cross. And Minteh set the tone for his entertaining afternoon by falling over his own leg when one-on-one with Ramsdale.
Southampton had done nothing by by the midway point of the first half. Not that it could stop Albion fans wondering if history was going to repeat itself. All the chances. No goals. Give one away at the other end. Utter embarrassment.
That was until Joao Pedro calmed some nerves when putting Brighton 1-0 ahead on 23 minutes. A clever exchange of passes with Georginio Rutter sent Pedro clear.
Pedro waited for Ramsdale to go to ground before dinking the ball over the England international and into the back of the net. An intelligent finish for his first goal since the start of January.
The Albion were utterly dominant through the first half. But one goal never feels enough with this team. Neither does two if we are being honest, having experienced late collapses against Southampton’s fellow strugglers Leicester City and Wolves.
Saints fired a warning shot within a couple of minutes of the second half kicking off when Archer had the ball in the back of the net. Here we go again… until the offside flag went up. No controversy and no VAR needed on this occasion.
Earlier in the season, Brighton had an alarming habit of sinking into decline once something went wrong. The number of occasions they conceded two goals in quick succession was frightening.
Southampton coming within an assistant referee’s call of levelling might have induced panic stations a couple of months ago. But not here.
In a sign of how this Albion side are progressing, almost conceding instead proved the catalyst for Brighton to go up the other end and score themselves.
Rutter dispossessed Joe Aribo, sent Minteh away down the flank and then charged into the box. Minteh picked him out with an outrageous outside of the boot square pass, easily steered home by Rutter.
The killer third arrived 13 minutes later. Mitoma produced his own dinked one-on-one finish over Ramsdale, very similar to the opener from Pedro. The Brazilian forward turned provider this time.
In the absence of Joel Veltman, Jack Hinshelwood did an excellent job filling in at right back. The teenager got the goal his performance deserved when firing into the bottom corner after the Saints got into a right mess trying to clear a Brajan Gruda corner.
Yes, Southampton really are so bad that Brighton managed to score from a set piece. An occurrence rarer than a political event in the United States of America passing without a Nazi salute these days.
A biggest Premier League win of the season was not the only reason to celebrate afterwards. Whilst Southampton 0-4 Brighton was taking place, Crystal Palace were busy doing the Albion a favour by winning at Fulham and Wolves defeated Plucky Little Bournemouth.
Beat the fifth-placed Cherries on Tuesday night and Brighton will join them on 43 points in the race for Europe. Some turnaround from the shambles at the City Ground.
