Roberto de Zerbi’s inspired substitutions at halftime earned Brighton & Hove Albion a 3-1 win over Bournemouth at The American Express Community Stadium this afternoon.
With the pressures of balancing cup and league commitments now becoming a reality for the Seagulls, De Zerbi announced nine changes from the side that lost to AEK Athens in midweek.
After a fairly tepid first half, the second period began with a bit of De Zerbi magic, bringing on Kaoru Mitoma and Ansu Fati, who combined to give Brighton the lead inside the first 20 seconds of the restart.
The Japanese international was on target again for the third, further emphasising De Zerbi’s decision-making prowess as his side have now scored five goals in the Premier League this season via substitutes, which is more than any other team in the top flight.
Before their Conference League disappointment, Brighton raised eyebrows in the league when they beat both Newcastle United and Manchester United 3-1 in their last two matches.
The hosts dictated the tempo of play in the early stages of the match, and while Bournemouth did well to get inside their opponent’s half whenever possible, they struggled with the final few passes.
However, in a moment of complacency, Bart Verbruggen took too long in possession and was closed down by Ryan Christie, which presented Dominic Solanke with an absolute gift that he took with aplomb, lifting it over the Brighton keeper for the opening goal completely against the run of play.
Arguably, the one criticism of the Seagulls in the early stages of the season has been their tendency to dominate possession but not make the most of it, having lost 3-1 to West Ham and 3-2 in midweek while recording over 70% of possession in each of those matches.
As the halftime whistle approached, Billy Gilmour delivered a testing ball into the danger area, and Cherries full-back Milos Kerkez glanced it past his own keeper to give Brighton their equaliser just before the break.
The addition of Fati and Mitoma at halftime injected much-needed vigour into their team’s performance, and the Seagulls almost got another when Pervis Estupinan found Fati unmarked in the box around the hour mark, but the 20-year-old got his shot all wrong and squandered a chance to get his first goal for his new employers.
Bournemouth were not without chances, though, but they squandered a couple of excellent opportunities in the final ten minutes of the game and lacked ideas going forward in the closing moments.
Brighton have now gone three league wins in a row for the first time since October 2018 and will now turn their focus to another big test against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup in midweek while The Cherries will welcome Stoke City to the Vitality Stadium.
