Brighton 3 Newcastle 1
After suffering a shock defeat at home to Liverpool in their last game, Newcastle travelled to Brighton in another tricky fixture. The Seagulls were looking to bounce back from a heavy home defeat at the hands of West Ham last time they played at the Amex Stadium.
The visitors created the first chance of the game when Estupinan gave the ball away to Tonali who cut the ball back perfectly to Isak. The Swedish striker completely fluffed his lines as he scuffed his shot well wide of the goal.
Almiron then tried to find a teammate in the box and his attempted cross deflected off Dunk and needed saving by the keeper as it almost went in. Verbruggen saved his captain’s blushes, getting down low in the bottom corner to keep it out.
Nick Pope then had a crazy couple of minutes as his attempted clearance went straight to Estupinan. As Brighton piled forward, he managed to save Mitoma’s effort before spilling another long-range shot, allowing Evan Ferguson to slot home the rebound.
Credit: @OfficialBHAFC
Anthony Gordon did well on the edge of the box for The Magpies, before finding Joelinton, who shifted the ball onto his left foot and shot. Sadly for Eddie Howe’s side the effort just went the wrong side of the post.
In the second-half, teenage sensation Ferguson was at it again as he shot from some distance, beating Pope all ends up. Newcastle were starting to sink without a trace on the south coast.
Anderson then set up Gordon but the ex-Everton man completely shanked his shot wide of the goal. All too often the visitors were creating half-chances but failing to ask questions of The Seagulls' keeper. It was proving costly.
Brighton managed to get the ball to Ferguson once again, as the youngster shot on his left-foot, it deflected off Schar and wrong-footed Nick Pope. Not that the striker was complaining as he completed his first senior hat-trick.
Newcastle managed to get a late goal through Callum Wilson but it was nothing more than a consolation, there was not enough time to get back into the game. It was a third defeat of the season for The Magpies, not the start to the season they were hoping for.
Many people were talking about Eddie Howe’s team to be challenging for the top four spots once again, with some even talking about title races. After three defeats in four games, The Magpies have seemingly been well and truly put back in their box.
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