Nott’m Forest 2 Brighton 3: Seagulls hold on for huge three points as Joao Pedro bags brace in Prem thriller

ROBERTO DE ZERBI claimed he doesn’t like 80 per cent of Premier League referees.

It’s safe to assume Anthony Taylor doesn’t feature in the 20 per cent of refs he does rate!

Brighton star Joao Pedro’s brace led to a dramatic Premier League winPA

Taylor incensed the Brighton bench when he dished out two yellow cards and sent Lewis Dunk off for dissent in the space of a minute, seconds after awarding Forest a controversial penalty.

But somehow the Seagulls survived a late onslaught at the City Ground to scrape home in a five-goal thriller.

And the way they sprinted off to celebrate with their fans at the end showed how relieved they were to finally end their six-match winless league streak, after inflicting Forest‘s first home defeat of the season.

You had to admire Brighton‘s battling qualities.

They had the kind of first half which would have caused De Zerbi to break out in a cold sweat – and the kind of dramatic end which would also have had him sweating buckets.

As if the shock of losing a third-minute opener wasn’t enough to contend with, the suffering Seagulls boss lost two of his star players before half-time.

Ansu Fati limped off midway through the first half clutching his right leg and was replaced by Joao Pedro.

Worse followed when Tariq Lamptey followed him up the tunnel 10 minutes before the break, forcing De Zerbi to turn to 18-year-old Jack Hinshelwood.

For a team already deprived of injured stars Pervis Estupinan, Solly March and Kaoru Mitoma, it was asking a lot of the visitors to dig deep especially after they got off to a disastrous start.

They found themselves a goal down after Forest got off to a flyer to score in their first attack.

Ola Aina pounced to intercept Pascal Gross’ pass and moved the ball on to Morgan Gibbs-White.

Forest’s No.10 surged down the right and flew past Gross before delivering a wicked cross into the Brighton box.

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Nottingham Forest opened the scoring against Brighton with Anthony ElangaGetty

It was a fraction too high for Chris Wood but Anthony Elanga came steaming in at the back post to head powerfully beyond Bart Verbruggen.

However, Brighton picked themselves off the floor and were 3-1 up within the hour.

Billy Gilmour skied over from 18 yards, then had a low shot saved by Odysseas Vlachodimos before the Seagulls finally got it right.

Gross picked out Evan Ferguson at the edge of the Forest box and the kid striker bent the ball round Moussa Niakhate to find the far corner of the net.

There was a VAR check to see if Adam Lallana had interfered with Vlachodimos’ line of sight but the Brighton forward was just onside and the goal stood. 

Dunk produced a great sliding tackle to deny Gibbs-White before Brighton seized the lead four minutes into first-half stoppage time.

Nottingham Forest came close to an equaliser after Morgan Gibbs-White’s penaltyReuters

Gross was given time to look up and cross into the box and Pedro powered his header beyond Vlachodimos.

And the Seagulls appeared to wrap up the three points after Wood gave away a needless penalty, tugging Pedro in the box as he tried to get on the end of a Dunk header.

The Brazilian took the spot-kick himself and coolly sent Vlachodimos the wrong way to give his side a two-goal cushion.

However, Brighton were made to sweat during a bonkers seven minutes which saw them reduced to 10 men after conceding a reckless penalty.

Kid midfielder Jack Hinshelwood pulled down sub Callum Hudson-Odoi in the box and although Taylor missed it at first, VAR invited him to check his pitchside monitor.

Dunk was booked for his protests after Taylor decided to point to the spot.

And then the experienced defender let himself down by carrying on his rant to earn a second yellow card for dissent in less than a minute.

After a seven-minute delay from the offence to the penalty kick, Gibbs-White remained calm enough to send Verbruggen the wrong way from the spot to reduce the gap to a single goal.

But despite pinning 10-men Brighton back, for virtually the entire 10 minutes of stoppage time, Forest couldn’t find the vital finishing touch to snatch a late point.

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