A devastating first-half blitz from Brighton secured a
memorable 3-2 victory over Manchester United on Renault Super Sunday.
There was sheer jubilation inside the Amex Stadium as two
goals in two minutes from Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy put Brighton two up
inside 27 minutes.
Romelu Lukaku halved the deficit on 34 minutes with a
close-range header but there was no respite for the beleaguered United defence
as Pascal Gross won and converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time to put
Brighton in control.
Paul Pogba scored a penalty in stoppage-time but it came too
late to inspire a comeback as Jose Mourinho, in the week in which he accused
Manchester City of lacking class, was left to reflect on a gulf in class on the
field.
Player ratings
Brighton: Ryan (7), Montoya (7), Dunk (5), Duffy (8), Bong
(7), Propper (7), Stephens (7), Gross (8), March (8), Knockaert (7), Murray
(8).
Subs: Balogun (7), Kayal (n/a), Locadia (n/a).
Man Utd: De Gea (5), Young (4), Lindelof (4), Bailly (3),
Shaw (5), Pereira (4), Fred (5), Pogba (5), Martial (5), Mata (4), Lukaku (6).
Subs: Rashford (5), Lingard (5), Fellaini (5).
Man of the Match: Shane Duffy
Brighton lost Captain Lewis Dunk to injury after an even
opening 21 minutes, but rather than handing United the opportunity to expose
any defensive weaknesses, the Seagulls went on the attack to devastating
effect.
After Anthony Knockaert dragged a shot wide, Solly March
drilled a cross into the United area where Murray nipped ahead of his marker to
deftly chip his first goal of the season beyond David de Gea.
Brighton celebrations turned to pandemonium two minutes
later as United failed to clear their lines from a corner on no more than three
occasions, allowing Duffy time to rifle a quick-fire second.
United were shell-shocked and bereft of ideas until a cross
under pressure from Luke Shaw found Lukaku in space in between the advancing
Brighton centre-backs, and the Belgium international nodded home from close
range.
Team news
Brighton made two changes from their opening-day defeat at
Watford. Both came at full-back as Bruno and Bernardo come out made way for
Martin Montoya and Gaetan Bong. After a summer of speculation, Anthony Martial
started for Manchester United, with Alexis Sanchez not in the squad. Ashley
Young replaced Matteo Darmian at right-back while Romelu Lukaku got the nod
ahead of Marcus Rashford in attack.
But the momentum was soon back in Brighton's possession as a
needless Eric Bailly lunge on Gross, who was going away from goal, handed
Brighton a penalty, which the German dispatched through the legs of De Gea.
Mourinho brought Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford on at the
break, and Marouane Fellaini on the hour, in a bid to inject some life into his
struggling side.
United improved slightly but took an age to test Maty Ryan,
Pogba's curling shot from the edge of the area drawing the Brighton goalkeeper
into action 16 minutes from time.
And by the time Pogba had converted a penalty deep into
stoppage-time, after Duffy had brought Fellaini down, it was too little too
late as Brighton basked in another memorable victory.
Opta stats
Since taking charge of Manchester United at the start of the
2016/17 season, the only opponent Jose Mourinho has lost against more often
than Brighton (2) is his former club Chelsea (4).
Brighton has lost just one of their last eight home games in
the Premier League (W5 D2 L1), with the two most recent both being wins against
Manchester United (1-0 in 2017/18 and 3-1 in 2018/19).
This was only the tenth time in Premier League history that
Manchester United conceded three first half goals in a game, and the first time
since October 2015 v Arsenal.
Manchester United lost their first away game of a Premier
League campaign for the first time since 2012/13, when they lost 0-1 against
Everton at Goodison Park.
23 of Glenn Murray's 24 goals in the Premier League have
been scored from inside the box, including 100% of those scored for Brighton in
the competition (13/13).
Pascal Gross has scored eight goals in the Premier League,
with all eight coming at home. Only Georginio Wijnaldum (18) and Clive Wilson
(9) have netted more goals exclusively at home.
Paul Pogba ended on the losing side in a Premier League game
he scored in for the very first time - prior to today, Manchester United had
won each of the previous 11 games he had netted in, which was a joint-record in
the competition (with Ryan Babel for Liverpool - 11 games).
The managers
Chris Hughton insisted beating Manchester United
"doesn't change anything" and Brighton should still be prepared for a
tough season.
Chris Hughton: "The tempo right from the start, we
always had an outlet. If you score three goals against any of the top six, it's
always a good feat. We forced things our way today with a very good
performance. On the whole the team was excellent."
Jose Mourinho does not want to be critical of his players as
people "do not accept it" and says he will only speak of them
positively.
Jose Mourinho: "I was not expecting big mistakes. We
are not speaking about small mistakes, we made big mistakes, and we were
punished by them. Of course when you lose your confidence, you lose a bit of
the game plan."
