4 months ago
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FABIAN Hurzeler must wonder what all the fuss is about…this Premier League management lark is clearly kids’ stuff.
The coming months will prove otherwise, of course. Yet after this flying start, the Prem’s youngest ever gaffer can make the most of it for now.
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Reuters
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ReutersA three-goal stroll gave Hurzeler, 31, the dream beginning to his life as Brighton boss.
Yet while it was all calm in the visiting dugout, Sean Dyche looked ready to blow in the home one, as his side were torn to shreds.
Not helped by a controversial call going against them and a self-inflicted red card from veteran Ashley Young, eight years older than the opposing gaffer.
If Dyche was hoping for a season of calm after two of financial mayhem, takeover chaos and points deductions, he can think again.
And all that despite a first half that promised so much…particularly in the midfield dynamo Tim Iroegbunam, their £9 million arrival from Aston Villa.
If only they’d had another ten to go with him, it would have been a totally different afternoon. As it was, they were a shambles…as they have been so often in recent times.
It started to go wrong on 25 minutes when Kaoru Mitoma – playing his first game after a back injury in February – prodded in at the far post from Yankuba Minteh’s cross.
It was debut boy Minteh’s high spot on an afternoon that saw him subbed when he was clattered, throwing himself to stop Vitalii Mykolenko from having a far post volley.
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Brighton medics insisted he heads for the bench as a concussion substitute. Minteh, signed from Newcastle, was far from dazed as he vainly argued his case to go back on.
Not that the Seagulls needed him…or missed him, either. Although a minute after the break it did appear as though Everton had been handed a route back into the game.
It came after Jack Harrison slid the ball to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and as Lewis Dunk threw himself to block, the Everton striker threw himself to the ground.
It looked a stonewall spot kick, and referee Hooper certainly thought so, immediately awarding the penalty.
Yet a Stockley Park word in his ear had the official making a touchline check, and we all know what that means. The decision was reversed…and a sigh of relief in the away dugout.
In truth it was hard to give a definite verdict as to whether Dunk clipped Calvert-Lewin’s foot, or if it was a tumble of his own making as he stood on the centre-back’s prone leg.
Whatever the definitive, there was no penalty. And eight minutes later the Seagulls rubbed their noses in it by breaking and doubling their lead.
Idrissa Gana Gueye was the guilty party for Everton, as his careless pass merely picked out Wieffer, who swiftly fed Danny Welbeck.
The Brighton striker had options on either side but used them to buy time and as Michael Keane dithered, he drilled past Jordan Pickford for a second.
Even then there was the sense it may not be game over…but 12 minutes later it most definitely was, as Young got his marching orders.
Again he could blame no-one but himself, trying to chest down Dunk’s angled crossfield ball as Mitoma waited when he should have used his head. In every sense.
With Young’s control far from perfect, the Japanese striker pounced and set off for goal…until the veteran fullback held him by the hand to stop him in his tracks.
Mitoma may have had 40 yards to run, but he was in the clear, not a covering defender in sight, and the official had the red card out in a flash.
Young’s afternoon was finished, so were Everton’s hopes…but just for good measure, Brighton made trebly sure when Simon Adringra curled in a late, late third.
If this is a sign of how the final season at Goodison is to be, they’ll be kicking off the next one in their new Bramley Moore Dock stadium as a Championship team.
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