- Brighton would have returned to the top four had they won on Thursday evening
- But Iwobi netted twice, with Matt O’Riley scoring an own goal for the Cottagers
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Andreas Pereira was hardly in Fulham’s good books after giving an interview to a Brazilian media outlet last week where he said it was ‘unfortunate’ that a move to Marseille broke down in the summer. In response, Marco Silva left him out of the squad on the weekend but the Brazilan went a little way to making amends on Thursday night.
With the game level going into the last quarter of an hour after Carlos Baleba’s wonderful strike cancelled out Alex Iwobi’s opener, Pereira’s corner hit the back of Brighton’s Matt O’Riley and went into the net, before Iwobi capped off a man-of-the-match display with a superb strike to seal the three points which pushed Fulham up to sixth in the table, a point behind Brighton.
In the blistering rain in west London, here were two sides with clear identities and it made for an enthralling watch. Silva made three changes from Sunday’s draw at Tottenham with Rodrigo Muniz coming in for Raul Jimenez and starts for Timothy Castagne and Harry Wilson.
For Brighton, there were four changes from their draw against Southampton with Danny Welbeck missing out due to an injury which Fabian Hurzeler described as a ‘small issue’ that wasn’t worth the risk. Lewis Dunk returned and took the armband while Baleba returned from suspension.
Hurzeler was serving a one-match touchline ban for picking up his third yellow card of the season against Southampton last week and spoke pre-match about ‘looking forward to the experience’ of coaching from the stands, saying it was his first time doing so.
It was Brighton who started on the front foot but any excitement for Hurzeler was short-lived and it was completely his side’s own doing with Bart Verbruggen trying to find Baleba in his own box but playing it straight to Iwobi, who took a couple of touches and passed it into an empty net.
For Iwobi, the early Christmas present was accepted gracefully as he equalled his tally of goal involvements from last season.
The cameras panned to a straight-faced and helpless Hurzeler, sat high up in the new Riverside stand with Airpods in his ears.
Brighton came close to levelling instantly with Jan Paul van Hecke sliding a through ball to Joao Pedro, who got in behind Calvin Bassey but his strike was palmed clear by Bernd Leno.
The visitors offered a constant threat with Pedro and Kaoru Mitoma regularly interchanging and O’Riley often driving up to make it a front four and in the 35th minute, they really should have levelled after a wonderful move.
Mitoma fired a wonderful ball across the box from the left flank, which O’Riley let run but Simon Adingra hit it straight at Leno from six yards out.
For all their dominance in possession in the first half, Brighton lacked that killer edge.
Hurzeler’s frustration was now growing and the absence of Welbeck, Brighton’s top scorer this season, was increasingly looking costly.
At the other end, Muniz came close to doubling Fulham’s lead but headed wide after climbing well to meet Antonee Robinson’s cross just before the break.
It was a timely reminder for Brighton and Fulham missed another golden opportunity just 15 seconds into the second half, with Wilson volleying wide after Iwobi found the Welshman.
Just like the first half though, the visitors had more of the ball and shortly after Van Hecke headed over from a corner, Brighton drew level through a moment of brilliance from Baleba.
Van Hecke’s lofted delivery found Pedro, whose flick put the ball into the path of Baleba and he drilled it first-time into the bottom corner before wheeling away with an acrobatic celebration.
Both managers made changes in a hunt for a winner and ultimately against the run of play, it was Pereira, who came on for Emile Smith Rowe, that made the difference before Iwobi put the icing on the cake, spinning and curling the ball into the bottom corner from outside the box. Remarkably, Brighton are yet to beat Fulham in all nine of their Premier League games against the Cottagers.
