Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton were utterly ruthless. Pierre Sage’s Crystal Palace were nowhere near ready for them. By the time the away end at the Amex had stopped shaking its head, Brighton were 5-0 up and barely out of second gear, and two Premier League seasons that had been heading in opposite directions for weeks had never looked more different.
It took four minutes for the damage to start. Pascal Gross’s dangerous delivery found its way in off Jaydee Canvot for an early own goal, and Brighton barely let Palace settle before Diego Gomez doubled the lead with a strike from inside his own half that will be replayed for weeks. The Sussex Express’s player ratings from the match called it the goal of the season so far in the division. Yasin Ayari made it three in the tenth minute with a deflected finish after being set up by Charalampos Kostoulas, and Brighton were already 3-0 up and cruising before a quarter of the game had been played. Kostoulas turned scorer himself shortly after the restart to make it four, and substitute Jack Hinshelwood, on for the goalscoring Gross, finished the job late on to make it five.
A Brighton Side Playing a Different Game Entirely
This was not a one off. Brighton had gone into the weekend already sitting third in the Premier League from just six games, with a goal difference of plus 13 that stood out as one of the most eye catching numbers anywhere in the division. Hurzeler, still only in his early thirties and the youngest permanent head coach in Premier League history, has built a side that presses relentlessly and scores from everywhere on the pitch. James Milner, now well into his forties and still a regular in that dressing room, has previously described the style as having echoes of the Jurgen Klopp Liverpool side he once played in, built on intensity and quick transitions rather than careful possession.
It is that kind of form that has made Hurzeler’s name come up in conversations well beyond Brighton. When reports claimed Manchester United had been sounding out possible alternatives to Michael Carrick earlier this month, Hurzeler was one of two names mentioned alongside Antonio Conte, even though Brighton made clear they had no interest in discussing it. Afternoons like this one are exactly why that speculation will not go away. A team playing with this much freedom, scoring goals as varied as an own goal, a stunning long range strike and a close range tap in inside the same half, is not easy to ignore if you are a club hunting for a manager who can make a struggling squad play with belief again.
Palace’s Season Keeps Getting Harder
For Crystal Palace, this was close to a nightmare afternoon, and it came at the worst possible time. Palace had lost 3-2 at Lyon in the Europa League in midweek, a club Sage once managed himself before moving to Selhurst Park, and that defeat had already made for an emotionally loaded few days. He made three changes to the side beaten there, bringing Jean-Philippe Mateta back among the substitutes after a period out of the side. None of it settled his team down. Palace were 3-0 behind inside ten minutes and spent the rest of the afternoon simply trying to avoid further embarrassment. Mateta came on just after the hour and hit the crossbar within two minutes of arriving, the closest Palace came to any kind of response on the day.
The defeat drops Palace to fourteenth in the table and extends a difficult run that has followed one of the most celebrated moments in the club’s history. Sage took over in the summer after Oliver Glasner left for Nottingham Forest having won the Conference League with Palace in May, a trophy that returned the club to European football this season. Replacing a manager who had just delivered a first major trophy was always going to be a difficult brief, and results since have been inconsistent. This was Palace’s first defeat away from home in the league since the opening weekend of the season, which gives some sense of how jarring Sunday afternoon will have felt inside the away dressing room.
What It Means For Both Clubs
Brighton now have a goal difference that few teams in the country can match, a position in the top three that looks entirely earned rather than lucky, and a manager being talked about for jobs far bigger than the one he currently holds. Whether that talk ever becomes anything concrete is a question for another day, but performances like this one will keep the conversation alive whether Brighton want it to be or not. For now, their focus will simply be on continuing to climb a table that already has them competing with clubs who spend many multiples of what Brighton do.
For Palace, the task is now about stabilising rather than building on last season’s achievements. A Europa League trip to face Besiktas on Thursday offers a quick chance to find some form again before Newcastle visit Selhurst Park the following Sunday. Sage has not lost the dressing room, by all accounts, and there is real quality still in that squad. But afternoons like this one, where a team simply has no answer for twenty minutes of a game, are the kind that start to define a manager’s first months in a new job, fairly or not. Palace will want this one out of the conversation as quickly as possible.
Two clubs, two trajectories, and one afternoon that captured exactly where both of them stand right now. If you want more pieces like this through the season, following It Was Always… Football means you will not miss the next one.