If this game wasn’t a reality check, then what followed from Roberto De Zerbi certainly was. At least that appeared the intention from the head coach after this first defeat of the season.
Roberto De Zerbi said: “We are Brighton and maybe the people are confused when they think of Brighton. Brighton can lose the game with West Ham. Why not? They can lose the game against Everton. Then we want to win against everyone. We are playing with courage, with pride and we want to make our fans happy, winning every game or winning the Europa League. But we can’t forget we are Brighton. YOU can’t forget we are Brighton. YOU can’t forget we lost three big players because we are not honest otherwise and I want to be honest. I will fight to win every game but for us, for our fans, for our club, we have to be clear and honest.”
After losing Julio Enciso to injury, De Zerbi said he wants a No.10 as well as a Caicedo type in midfield and one other player in an unspecified position.
The latter may well be a specialist right-back.
Here, they had found some momentum after a slow start when poor execution of the right plan caught them out.
Adam Webster tried to force a pass but saw the ball cut out by Ward-Prowse, who helped it forward.
That was when Webster should have kept it simple as he got to the ball before Antonio, rather than trying a pass back to Bart Verbruggen which fell short.
Billy Gilmour got back to block from Ward-Prowse but the ball bounced back for the Hammer to tap in.
Roberto De Zerbi said: “When we concede the first goal, the mistake by Adam Webster wasn’t the last part with Antonio. With the pass, he took a big risk. In another way we can play, we move the ball faster to move the opponent right and left but we have to keep the ball. We can’t lose the ball in that way because we were attacking with a lot of players and the first thing is to keep the ball and don’t lose the ball. But anyway there was the possibility to defend better after this mistake on the pass. But Webster is still one of the most important players and it is not a problem.”
Alphonse Areola denied Evan Ferguson soon after that goal and early in the second period before Bowen outpaced Pervis Estupinan to reach Said Benrahma’s cross and finish cleverly.
