Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton & Hove Albion were shipwrecked in Nottingham on Saturday and are gradually losing sight of the international starting places.
Nottingham Forest has responded to the 5-0 defeat in Bournemouth with a landslide victory: the third-placed team in the Premier League beat Brighton & Hove Albion 7-0 on Saturday.
Man of the day in front of 30,164 fans at the City Ground: Chris Wood. The 33-year-old New Zealander, who once wore the Brighton shirt ages ago, scored a hat-trick from 3-0 to 5-0 and increased his goal tally this season to 17.
“We have to apologize to the fans for the result. It was a bad game from us,” said Fabian Hürzeler, the German coach of the Seagulls: “We win together and we lose together, and now I want to see a reaction from the team.”
Danilo returns to the starting lineup
An own goal from Lewis Dunk (12th) put Brighton behind early on. Morgan Gibbs-White then scored (25th) before the Wood festival ensured a clear result, with Neco Williams (89th) and Jota Silva (90th+1) adding to the defeat for the visitors.
The win saw Forest move above Arsenal into second place in the table, at least temporarily. Nuno Espirito Santo responded to the fiasco in Bournemouth by switching to a back five in a bid to tighten up. Danilo also returned to the starting lineup after breaking his ankle in August, setting up Dunk’s own goal for the opener.
Dunk’s seventh own goal – Chelsea double pack
Incidentally, it was the seventh own goal in the Brighton captain’s Premier League career that led to Brighton’s highest league defeat in 67 years – and the highest in their Premier League history.
To do better in the near future, as the coach demands, the Seagulls will have to face Chelsea twice – on February 8 (9 p.m.) in the FA Cup and six days later at the same time, also at home in the league.
