‘Hey, Danny Welbeck,’ sang the Brighton fans. ‘I wanna know how you scored that goal.’
Not once but twice, the veteran forward scored to help Fabian Hurzeler’s side to their most notable victory in many months and condemn faltering Liverpool and under-fire Arne Slot to another forgettable afternoon.
A better song might have been: ‘Hey, Danny Welbeck… I wanna know why you’re not in the England squad.’
Had this performance came a day or two earlier, it might have been enough to nudge him ahead of Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the Three Lions squad. These goals were Welbeck’s 11th and 12th of the term, his best-ever season.
Just like his 40-year-old colleague James Milner, the striker is aging like a fine wine and he did what his team-mates could not: put his chances away. Time and time again, Albion carved Liverpool apart and the scoreline ultimately flattered their visitors.
‘Remarkable season,’ said Hurzeler on his star striker, 35. ‘For me, it is not only about scoring goals but how he is there for his team-mates and connecting the individual cultures that we have in our team and for me, he is not replaceable for us.’
Danny Welbeck will be wondering where his England call-up is, after netting two to make him the highest-scoring Englishman in the Premier League this season
But Liverpool slipped up on what was a potential banana skin with their hopes of Champions League football next season under threat
Welbeck himself added, when asked about a potential World Cup dream: ‘For me, I have to control what I can control. It’s really nice that my name is being mentioned with that, that’s a positive for me, but I don’t like to give energy to things that I can’t control. So for me, I’m just happy and enjoying my football.’
When quizzed on fellow veteran Milner, Welbeck replied: ‘Who, Benjamin Button? Yeah, James is incredible. So for me, I’m 35 and he’s 40, and he is pushing every single day. It’s not normal to see it. He is pushing the standards for everyone every single day.’
Slot was brought back down to earth after his team put in their most complete performance of the season on Wednesday in the Champions League. Here, the English champions were not just beaten but thoroughly out-played, out-ran and out-fought.
Welbeck scored either side of Milos Kerkez’s equaliser to momentarily take Brighton up to eighth. One win in 13 from December to February may ultimately cost them a European push but, playing like this with four wins in five, the sky is the limit for Hurzeler’s soaring Seagulls.
Liverpool, meanwhile, were left cursing as they followed a step forward with a mighty retreat backwards again. This game, without injured duo Mohamed Salah and Alisson, was a glimpse into the future but also a case of deja vu for Slot, who was haunted by the same old problems.
It was a glorious afternoon in sunny Sussex by the sea and both sets of teams looked like they’d rather be on the beach in their deck-chairs at times in the first half. It was a mistake-laden opening period with a slow and lethargic tempo.
That was the best way to describe Liverpool’s start as a couple of attempted passes went wildly wrong, one of them proving costly as stand-in goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili carelessly tossed away possession to concede a cheap throw-in.
Brighton worked the resulting set-piece well with the move culminating in Welbeck cupping his ear to the away end, or maybe England boss Tuchel just 24 hours on from being snubbed for the Three Lions squad.
The header made it the 35-year-old’s best-ever goal-scoring campaign in the Premier League with seven games to spare after Diego Gomez headed back across goal. An efficient move but highly preventable with Liverpool guilty of several counts of statuesque defending.
Milos Kerkez secured a buoyant equaliser for the hosts as he captalised on Brighton’s error
But the Reds were otherwise roundly outplayed on the South Coast, letting an opportunity to shore up fifth place go to waste
Arne Slot has suffered key injuries to his squad and endured a challenging amount of fixtures
If that was a shambolic goal to concede, Brighton raised Liverpool on 30 minutes after experienced, long-serving captain Lewis Dunk made a schoolboy error. Like pulling out without checking your rear-view mirror, Dunk blindly headed into the path of an unmarked Kerkez.
The Hungarian could not believe his luck as he was presented a one-versus-one opportunity and duly obliged with a composed lob over Bart Verbruggen. Liverpool were back in the game after a sloppy opening half an hour.
This trip to the south coast was always a potential banana skin for Slot and Co. They had finished an energy-zapping win over Galatasaray just 62 hours earlier and the turnaround, with barely any time to train in between due to recovery needs, was always going to be an issue.
A lengthy injury list does not help Slot, who is unable to shuffle his pack too much. Salah and goalkeeper Alisson were fresh concerns, while Joe Gomez was not deemed fit enough to start and others, like Alexander Isak, are still on the sidelines.
But those excuses do not wash with away fans who either had to fork out for a Friday night in Brighton (there are worse ways to spend a spring weekend) or set alarms in the small hours to be at this lunchtime affair.
Hurzeler’s side started to make their extra four days of rest count after the break as they stepped up the intensity and peppered Mamardashvili’s goal. Mats Wieffer headed wide when unmarked from six yards, while Brighton’s Gomez saw a free-kick well saved.
The Seagulls soon saw their pressure pay dividends when Welbeck scored his second of the game on 56 minutes, tapping home after Jack Hinshelwood squared the ball from a pitch-perfect Yankuba Minteh cross.
Minteh was an effervescent menace throughout in a bright performance and he should have made it 3-1 on 68 minutes but was denied by Mamardashvili as Alexis Mac Allister, once of this parish, went close at the other end.
Brighton arguably had a stronger bench than Liverpool despite the champions spending close to half a billion pounds last summer, as Kaoru Mitoma and Carlos Baleba – valued at north of £100million last year – were sent on.
Mitoma caused problems straight away and skipped past Curtis Jones as if he was a hologram with his first touches. The Japan international squared a pass for Hinshelwood but the local lad fluffed his lines and could not connect to what should have been a certain goal.
In the end, the misses did not matter as Brighton momentarily started to dream of European football with their best win here since they beat Manchester City in the second week of the season.
Hurzeler would snap anyone’s hand off for a Europa League or Conference League jaunt next season. Slot, meanwhile, is sleepwalking towards the same fate as this sorry title defence hit another bump in the road with a 10th league defeat.
