Brighton thrash sorry Wolves with second-half blitz led by Solly March
Brighton just keeping getting better and better. Finishing sixth in the Premier League, while selling their best players, usually to Chelsea, does not seem to have put any limit on their upward trajectory and their fans were left singing “We are top of the league” as three goals inside the first 10 minutes of the second half enabled Roberto De Zerbi’s free-flowing side to embellish their reputation.
Successive 4-1 victories have left them safe in the knowledge that selling Moisés Caicedo, Leandro Trossard, Robert Sánchez and Alex Mac Allister need not impede their progress. After all, they recovered from selling Ben White and Marc Cucurella, Caicedo’s predecessors as Brighton’s players of the year, to maintain their rise.
FT: TWO WINS FROM TWO! 😁
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) August 19, 2023
[1-4] 📲 https://t.co/S3j1TIedJv // #BHAFC 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/ZK7gWbl6zI
Brighton have overtaken Wolves over this period and this was their fourth successive victory over a team who, having alleviated their sense of crisis with a stirring performance in losing to Manchester United on Monday, fell apart after an encouraging first half.
Wolves have also sold some of their best players this summer but, on this evidence, they are less well equipped to cope with the succession. To cap a bad day, Matheus Nunes was sent off in the fifth minute of added time for entering his second shoving match of the afternoon. At least Hwang Hee-chan scored their first goal of the season.
Two teams both starting with 4-4-2 and equally attacking mindsets led to a thrillingly open first half awash with space and chances.
One difference was Brighton’s slick play has been well-honed and their ability to play one-touch football helped keep them one step ahead of Wolves; the other key difference was their ball-carrier-in-chief Mitoma finished his finest run with a brilliant solo goal, cruising past three defenders before opening his body to score.
Wolves may have been by far the dominant team in creating more efforts on goal at Old Trafford than any visiting team since 2005 but still they could not score. Since the start of last season, Wolves have the lowest shot-conversion rate (7.1% at the start of this game) in the Premier League. Manager, Gary O’Neil, rightly encouraged by what he brought out of this squad on Monday, may have a clearer idea of their frailty after his second game in charge.
Brighton have now won their opening away game for the past five seasons; Wolves have failed to win their first home match in this their sixth season back in the Premier League. If they are to consider rectifying that in 12 months’ time, O’Neil has his work cut out.
Wolves responded to Mitoma’s opener with a buccaneering half an hour and if Fabio Silva, Pedro Neto, Matheus or Rayan Aït-Nouri had scored when they got in on goal, this could have been a very different game.
Instead Brighton came out for the second half and scored immediately. Following a Wolves attack, Nunes did not track Estupiñán who scored from Mitoma’s pullback after Danny Welbeck saw his shot parried. Then Julio Enciso twice set up March to score from close range, the first with a gorgeous outside-of-boot pass from the left, the second after good work by Welbeck.
