Wolves 2-3 Brighton: Albion produce Bonfire Night fireworks
On Bonfire Night 2022, the fireworks were not just restricted to celebrating Guy Fawkes’ foiled plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament 417 years ago. At Molineux, a game of football took place which had its fair share ending in a final score of Wolves 2-3 Brighton.
With each passing week, we are seeing the Albion become more and more a team in the image of Roberto De Zerbi. Risk taking, attacking and wanting to shoot whenever possible.
It is chaotic, thrilling to watch and the shift in style from Graham Potter’s obsession with possession might be what unlocks the door to European qualification.
Chelsea and Potter could not live with it last week. In humiliating their former head coach 4-1, the Albion had set the standard under De Zerbi.
The challenge at Wolves was to prove it was not a one-off, a victory simply fueled by the players’ desire to get one over their former head coach.
Or impress him enough for Chelsea to sign each of them in an individual basis come January. Which, given the asset stripping Potter has already committed on Brighton, is not exactly far-fetched.
Brighton passed this challenge with flying colours. They had to dig deep to find a way, with Wolves buoyed by the announcement before kick off that former Spain and Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui will be taking over at Molineux once the winter break for the World Cup is here.
De Zerbi had stuck with Potter’s back three for his first five games at helm. Injury to Joel Veltman prior to the Chelsea match gave the Italian the perfect excuse to switch to the 4-2-3-1 formation he has favoured throughout his managerial career.
Crucially, that has allowed De Zerbi to find a place in the starting XI for Kaoru Mitoma, who already looks like the best Japanese import to these shores since Akiko Kuzusaka opened the United Kingdom’s first sushi restaurant.
No opposition defence so far has been capable of dealing with the threat posed by Mitoma. Anyone who watched Brighton under Potter could see that the Albion were crying out for a bit of variety in attack, someone willing to run at players with pace and directness rather than simply pass, pass, pass.
Mitoma brings that in spades. “Antony Knockaert on speed” was how somebody brilliantly described him in our Twitter mentions.
Signing Knockaert was the key to taking Brighton onto the next level needed to secure promotion out of the Championship. Mitoma has the potential to do the same in the Premier League, helping the Albion break into that top seven.
All three Albion goals in Wolves 2-3 Brighton involved Mitoma. The first arrived after just seven minutes. Moises Caicedo fed a pass out to the left flank, where the Japanese international teased running at a couple of home defenders.
Instead, he hit a succulent pass with the outside of his right boot straight to the feet of Trossard in the Wolves box. Trossard produced a one-touch layoff to Adam Lallana, who took on the sort of early shot through a crowd of players that De Zerbi demands of his team.
The result was a rare Lallana goal, his first since March 2021 and only his second in Albion colours. Put Lallana down as another to benefit from De Zerbi’s formation change, back as a number 10 where he proved so effective earlier in his career at Southampton and Liverpool.
Brighton deserved their early opener after an enterprising start. Solly March should have scored even before Lallana, a long ball forward from Lewis Dunk being brought down and steered towards March beautifully by Lallana.
March though could not find the back of the net, seeing his effort blocked by a combination of Nathan Collins and Hugo Bueno. We say it every week, but if March could score then he would be playing for England.
Wolves equalising five minutes after Brighton took the lead came somewhat out of the blue. Goncalo Guedes was released down the Albion left and with Pervis Estupinan nowhere to be seen, the Wolves winger had clear space to speed into.
Mitoma did his best to keep up and had Guedes not fired past Robert Sanchez once he made it into the box, Wolves probably would have had a penalty – Mitoma produced a not-so-subtle nudge in the back which sent the home man falling to the ground after he had got his shot away.
Wolves had only scored three times at Molineux all season prior to that. In Typical Brighton style, the Albion allowed them to go from three goals in 640 minutes to scoring twice in 33 minutes.
Allowed is probably the wrong word, actually, as it took a shambolic VAR intervention to put the Old Gold into the lead.
Daniel Podence delivered a cross which brushed against the outstretched arm of Dunk. The Brighton captain’s intervention had no impact on play as the delivery still reached Joao Moutinho, whose subsequent shot was headed away by Estupinan.
VAR though took a look. The fact that it needed six minutes and referee Graham Scott gooing to the screen tells you it was far from the sort of clear and obvious error that VAR was supposedly introduced to clear up.
In the time it took to decide that Wolves deserved a penalty, you could take a train from Brighton to Falmer. After Mr Scott eventually pointed to the spot, Ruben Neves did the rest. No surprise there as Sanchez is not exactly great at saving spot kicks.
The final 12 minutes of the first half proved still enough time to fit in plenty more drama. Brighton levelled when Lallana foxtrotted his way around a couple of Wolves defenders and hung up a cross to the back post where Mitoma arrived to head home his maiden Premier League goal.
Mitoma then had Wolves reduced to 10 men seconds before the interval. Dunk picked out his run with a 70 yard ball down the pitch and when Nelson Semedo grabbed Mitoma around the waste as he bore down on goal, Mr Scott had little choice but to send the home full back off.
Just to make sure that Mr Scott got the decision right, Mitoma furiously waved an imaginary card around. Some Brighton fans have admonished Mitoma for such behaviour; others viewed it as the first sign that the Albion are developing the sort of shithouse streak all the best teams have.
There is such a thing as being too nice and too soft on the pitch, something which Brighton have been accused of plenty of times since winning promotion to the Premier League.
The Albion now had 45 minutes of football playing against 10 men in which to try and make it Wolves 2-3 Brighton and give De Zerbi his first away win as Albion boss.
Wolves manned the trenches, as you would expect opponents sitting second-bottom of the table to do when they have a point to defend against a side like Brighton chasing European football.
Such tactics have often proved too much for the Albion to overcome in the past. For 38 minutes of the second half, it looked like that might be the case again.
March and Alexis Mac Allister had efforts brilliantly saved by Jose Sa. Dunk, Adam Webster (twice) and Mac Allister were wastefully off target with other chances.
Those misses might have haunted Brighton were it not for an acrobatic stop from Sanchez. He kept out a powerful Adama Traore effort from a tight angle after the Albion fell asleep when defending a Wolves free kick quickly taken.
De Zerbi responded to that rare opportunity for the hosts by bringing on the lesser spotted duo of Billy Gilmour and Deniz Undav.
It did not take long for the pair to make an impact. March cut inside from the right and beat a couple of Wolves players on the edge of the box before finding Gilmour with a sideways pass.
Gilmour helped the ball onto Caicedo on the left. Caicedo slipped Mitoma down the channel. Mitoma beat Collins to get to the by-line, pulled back to Undav who rolled the ball into the path of Gross.
Der Kaiser did the rest, finding the top corner with a right footed finish on the slide to continue his sensational season so far.
The away end went wild, a final score of Wolves 2-3 Brighton rewarding all those who had made alternative travel arrangements in the face of a rail strike called after most had purchased match tickets.
We will no doubt get a 2000 word essay from Paul Barber soon highlighting how many tickets for collection went unclaimed at Molineux with no context given to the transport nightmare.
De Zerbi instead took a very different approach to that of the club’s determination to demonise away supporters, dedicated Wolves 2-3 Brighton to the Albion’s “incredible fans.”
The feeling is mutual; Seagulls supporters are already realising that Brighton have an equally incredible head coach.
For De Zerbi to have the Albion attack functioning the way it is after less than six weeks in charge is phenemonal. To have created such a strong bond with the fanbase equally so.
A win against Aston Villa next Sunday could see Brighton sit in the top six going into the World Cup. Given the upheaval caused by Potter walking out and the challenging October fixture list which greeted De Zerbi upon his arrival, that would be quite the achievement.
What a time to support Brighton & Hove Albion.
