Brighton brush aside Southampton to keep European hopes on track

Brighton made it three wins in a row as they cruised to a 4-0 victory at rock-bottom Southampton to climb to eighth place in the Premier League and keep their European ambitions on track.

Goals from the excellent Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood were more than enough to condemn the Saints to a 21st defeat of the season and leave them on just nine points, two fewer than Derby’s record low total from the 2007/8 season.

As if they did not already have enough problems, Southampton lost their captain Jan Bednarek through injury after 10 minutes. Forgotten man Armel Bella-Kotchap was his replacement, coming off the bench to huge acclaim from the home support to make his first appearance in 567 days for the club.

Brighton were quickly on top though, with Joao Pedro and Rutter causing Saints plenty of problems.

Carlos Baleba came close to opening the scoring when his free-kick cannoned off the wall and looped up on to the roof of the net before Mitoma missed a great chance at the far post after being found by Hinshelwood’s deep cross.

The Seagulls were not to be denied for long and hesitation in the Saints defence was pounced upon by Joao Pedro who coolly scooped the ball over the advancing Aaron Ramsdale to give Fabian Hurzeler’s side a deserved lead.

Southampton were struggling to break into the final third but Brazilian left-back Welington did force Bart Verbruggen to claw the ball over the bar with a curling shot from the edge of the area in a rare home attack.

Southampton thought they had equalised at the start of the second half when Cameron Archer neatly finished off a clever pass from Mateus Fernandes. Archer was flagged offside and VAR concurred, much to Ivan Juric’s frustration.

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