Brighton move closer to Europe: 5-0 win vs Palace puts them third

Brighton & Hove Albion head into this stretch in third place after a statement performance against Crystal Palace, winning 5-0 and ending a run of four derby matches without victory.

The match turned on a couple of key moments. The opener came from a cross that ended in an own goal by Jaydee Canvot, and the second was scored by Diego Gómez with a perfectly weighted strike from just inside Palace’s half. As Jonathan Wilson points out, “this season already, 11 different players have scored for Brighton in the league.”

The bigger picture matters: the run contrasts with February, when Brighton lost 1-0 to Palace and had managed just one win in their previous 12 Premier League games. That backdrop also includes the summer departures of Carlos Baleba, Jan Paul van Hecke, Danny Welbeck and James Milner, followed by reinforcements such as Luka Vušković and the impact of Chema Andrés after arriving from Stuttgart.

At the centre of it is Pascal Gross. He returned in January from a season and a half at Borussia Dortmund and, by Wilson’s figures, leads the league with four assists, adding three goals, plus 3.0 key passes per match. The question now is whether Brighton can sustain the challenge as Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh and Mats Wieffer are out, with all three expected back within the next month.