Two goals in the first five minutes put Brighton and Hove Albion on easy street in a 3-0 win over basement-dwelling Wolves at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
Jack Hinshelwood, Lewis Dunk, and Yankuba Minteh scored for the Seagulls, who improve to 5-1-1 in their last seven Premier League games.
WATCH — Brighton v Wolves full match replay
Fabian Hurzeler and Wolves are one of a mess of teams trying to reach the Europa League or Conference League, and move seventh with 53 points. That’s two points back of sixth-place Bournemouth.
Wolves were looking to climb out of the Premier League basement but Rob Edwards’ Wolves remain two points behind 19th-place Burnley.
If Wolves have a strength it’s in the middle of the park, but Joao Gomes and Andre had their hands full from the jump against Brighton.
Fabian Hurzeler had his men armed with full knowledge of the path to victory. The 2-0 lead sure helped but 0-0 for a while might not have changed much as Carlos Baleba and Pascal Gross joined Jack Hinshelwood in controlling the heart of the pitch.
Steady center backs Jan Paul van Hecke and Lewis Dunk were quite good, as was Bart Verbruggen, but the wide players shined with the freedom provided by the steady center. Maxim De Cuyper delivered two assists and Yankuba Minteh was a threat well before he delivered the final goal. Everybody was involved.
Tony Bloom’s done it again. Now can Brighton stay in a European place. Judging by Saturday’s display, it might just be in the stars for a team without stars.
Brighton go to Leeds on Sunday, May 17 before finishing at home to Manchester United on May 24.
Wolves host Fulham on Sunday, May 17, and will finish the season at fellow relegated side Burnley on May 24.
“We have to go all in now and approach it as unchanged. We will keep going and focus on the things we can control and our performance and then we will see what happens.”
Lewis Dunk was asked the same thing, framed as a return to the continent for the veteran.
“The whole group stuck together and now we’re looking at Europe again. It’s a mental season, one minute we’re looking at relegation and now we’re talking about Europe, it’s great fun football isn’t it?”
(via the BBC).
Goalscorers: Jack Hinshelwood 1', Lewis Dunk 5', Yankuba Minteh 86'
There wasn’t much hope for a Wolves comeback but that’s extinct now.
Yankuba Minteh makes a super clever turn in traffic to find himself able to lash a left-footed shot past Bentley in the 87th minute.
Maxim De Cuyper and Jack Hinshelwood leave for Solly March and Charalampos Kostoulas.
No more movement up the all-time goals board for Welbeck, as his day and that of Carlos Baleba are over after 76 minutes.
Georginio Rutter and Yasin Ayari enter the game.
And Mane exits along with Pedro Lima.
Into the game are Rodrigo Gomes and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
It had grown a bit sleepy here but Wolves put a charge into the affair as Mateus Mane forces a save out of Bart Verbruggen.
Adam Armstrong looked capable of finishing the rebound but couldn’t quite sort his feet in the 65th minute.
David Moller Wolfe replaces Hugo Bueno as Wolves bid to get back into the match.
The 24-year-old has only played one Premier League minute since early March despite a pair of caps for Norway in the interim.
Wolves are struggling with Brighton’s game plan and have managed just three touches in the Seagulls’ box.
xG is 0.71-0.00, as Brighton haven’t quite turned their control into easy chances but it’s 7-0 in shot attempts.
Brighton have completed 284 passes to Wolves’ 76. Angel Gomes, Tolu Arokodare, and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde are among those who may shake things up for Wolves as substitutes.
No howling here.
Through 35 minutes, Wolves have zero shot attempts off 27% possession.
They’ve complete just 68 passes compared to the hosts’ 208.
Yankuba Minteh is nearly dropped by his chest trap of a huge cross but takes the ball and works his own cross toward the back post.
Danny Welbeck powers a header down off the turf but Bentley is able to stop it from crossing the line.
Before the clock reads 5:00, Brighton lead 2-0.
A Brighton corner is swung over the sea of bodies where Lewis Dunk leaps to head inside the near post.
A first-minute goal as Danny Welbeck gets the ball out wide to Kaoru Mitoma, who spins a high cross toward the penalty spot.
Hinshelwood leaps onto the end of it and nod past Dan Bentley.
Brighton striker Danny Welbeck is having a renaissance and the veteran finisher is tied for sixth in this season’s Golden Boot race with 13 goals.
He’s perhaps quietly moved into the Premier League’s top-50 all-time goal scorers this season with 90 goals, passing Marcus Rashford, Kevin Davies, and Dennis Bergkamp while matching Olivier Giroud’s career total.
Only 35 players have scored 100 PL goals and Welbeck has a shot if he can stay healthy — and that’s the rub. Where would he be without his early career injury woes?
Wolves stars have come from behind the front line this season as Joao Gomes, Hugo Bueno, and Andre will all be targeted by other clubs but could be huge in the Championship.
Only Santiago Bueno and Tolu Arokodare have more than three goal contributions this season (goals plus assist) and they each have... four. Rodrigo Gomes, Santi Bueno, and Arokodare are the co-scoring leaders with three goals.
Pretty dire.
Starting XI: Bentley, Lima, Mosquera, S. Bueno, T. Gomes, H. Bueno, Andre, J. Gomes, Mane, Armstrong, Hwang
Subs: Gracey, Doherty, Wolve, Orokodare, R. Gomes, Bellegard, Krejci, Tchatchoua, A. Gomes
Brighton XI: Verbruggen, Kadioglu, Van Hecke, Dunk, De Cuyper, Gross, Baleba, Hinshelwood, Minteh, Mitoma, Welbeck
Subs: Steele, March, Rutter, Kostoulas, Milner, Boscaglia, Ayari, O’Riley, Veltman
Kick off time: 10am ET Saturday (May 9)
Venue: Amex Stadium — Falmer, East Sussex
TV Channel: Peacock
Streaming: Stream live on Peacock
