Brighton Dezerbed their win at Wolves as Roberto keeps rolling

A dark, miserable, wet and rainy day down south was made less gloomy by happenings at Molineux where Brighton made it back-to-back wins under Roberto De Zerbi for the first time… and the Albion certainly Dezerbed their three points.

The weather was not quite as bleak in the Midlands, where Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall both sounded in good form on BBC Radio Sussex. Both were also wearing Peaky Blinders caps in an attempt to blend in with the locals.

De Zerbi named an unchanged starting XI from last week’s fantastic 4-1 win over Chelsea. You could hear the Albion fans loud and proud over the airwaves, a fantastic effort from everyone to get to Wolverhampton when there were no normal trains running.

It was even reported that Brighton had been given a larger away area along the side of the pitch rather than in the corner, as was the case last season. It had sold out which once again highlights what great support the players enjoy on the road.

Those at Molineux and us keeping track from elsewhere nearly had something to celebrate as early as the fourth minute. Alexis Mac Allister shot wide, followed five minutes later by Wolves defender Nathan Collins deflecting a Solly March effort behind for a corner.

March took the resulting corner, from which a series of good passes allowed Adam Lallana to slot home the opening goal.

Lallana has worked so hard for the team and shown real leadership helping out following the departure of Graham Potter that he deserved to score – especially having come close on some many occasions this season.

BBC Sussex informed us it was his first goal for 44 matches. What a perfect time to end such a long run without scoring, with only 10 minutes played at Molineux.

Unfortunately, the 1-0 lead did not last very long. Two minutes after Lallana struck and Goncalo Guedes equalised. Guedes deserves credit for his goal; he could have gone to ground to try and earn Wolves a penalty when clipped by Kaoru Mitoma but he stayed on his feet, getting a shot past Robert Sanchez before falling to the floor.

Brighton responded and some good passing up the pitch gave Leandro Trossard the chance to get a shot away which flew over the crossbar.

Lallana was relatively unmarked in the middle; perhaps if Trossard had slipped a pass to his teammate then it could have been a different story with that attack.

The game went back up the other end, where Daniel Podence chipped a ball into the Brighton box from Wolves’ right flank. As Lewis Dunk was about to challenge Podence, the Albion captain raised his right arm to try and balance.

As a consequence, the ball caught Dunk’s elbow. Referee Graham Scott did not initially blow, however VAR soon intervened and we had a lengthy break in play whilst video assistant referee Lee Mason watched a thousand replays.

Eventually, Mr Scott went over to the pitch side monitor and having looked at just one angle of the incident, he pointed to the spot straight away.

The penalty was slotted into the top of the net by Wolves top scorer Ruben Neves, putting the hosts 2-1 up. At this point I was thinking nothing more than “Oh no!”

Brighton though never give up. It did not take long for the Albion to equalise. March was heavily involved with some great passing and possession play, eventually leading to Lallana who crossed from the right.

The ball into the box found the head of Karou Mitoma who nodded home to make it 2-2. It was a fine header from Mitoma, the first of many goals I am sure we will see from him in a Brighton shirt… presuming he stays long enough!

There were six minutes of stoppage time added thanks to how long it took VAR to reach a decision on the penalty. I found myself thinking at that point that getting to half time level would be a good platform for the Albion to go on and win the game.

Those six minutes brought with them an important incident. Nelson Semedo put into practice something which he obviously learnt at Twickenham, a full-on rugby tackle of Mitoma who was racing onto a beautifully weighted long ball forward from Dunk.

Mitoma would have been in on goal had Semedo not wrapped his arms around the waste of the Albion winger and pulled him to the ground. Mr Scott showed an immediate red card with no questions asked.

There was quite a debate on BBC Sussex afterwards with some listeners telephoning in to say Mitoma should not have behaved as he did following the rugby tackle, gesticulating at the referee to show Semedo a card.

My point of view is that Mitoma does not yet speak English well, so he had every right to let Mr Scott know what he thought by waving his arms around. The foul on Mitoma was appalling and he was correct to be angry.

Early in the second half and March got away down the right, hitting a really good shot which needed an impressive save from Jose Sa at the neat post to stop it going in.

There seemed to be Brighton attempt after attempt after attempt following that. Adam Webster missed a couple of headers. Danny Welbeck replaced Lallana and soon had Collins booked and a free kick earned, which Alexis Mac Allister took. Sa made another great stop.

Sanchez had to make saves from Guedes and Adama Traore as the 10 men of Wolves tried to make a fight of it. As the game entered the final 10 minutes, the score remained 2-2 with the hosts becoming more and more content to hold onto what they had.

Brighton needed to find a way through. A great passage of play in the 83rd minute got Mitoma away around the back. He flicked the ball to Deniz Undav, who laid off to Pascal Gross.

Gross swung a right leg at the ball and placed it into the right side of the Wolves net. Brighton were 3-2 ahead with just seven minutes remaining, seven minutes which they comfortably saw out for another three points.

The victory lifted Brighton into sixth in the table, above Potter and Chelsea. It would be fantastic to go into the winter World Cup break in the top six, something the Albion will achieve with a result next week against Aston Villa.

Before that, there is the small matter of a trip to Arsenal in the League Cup. It will be interesting to see how both coaches line up their teams; but no matter how strong or weak the Gunners team is, Brighton should fear nobody at the minute as they continue rolling with Roberto.

Up the Albion!

Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony