Brighton made it three wins in a row as they cruised to a 4-0 victory at rock-bottom Southampton to climb to eighth place in the Premier League and keep their European ambitions on track.
Goals from the excellent Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood were more than enough to condemn the Saints to a 21st defeat of the season and leave them on just nine points, two fewer than Derby’s record low total from the 2007/8 season.
As if they did not already have enough problems, Southampton lost their captain Jan Bednarek through injury after 10 minutes. Forgotten man Armel Bella-Kotchap was his replacement, coming off the bench to huge acclaim from the home support to make his first appearance in 567 days for the club.
Brighton were quickly on top though, with Joao Pedro and Rutter causing Saints plenty of problems.
Carlos Baleba came close to opening the scoring when his free-kick cannoned off the wall and looped up on to the roof of the net before Mitoma missed a great chance at the far post after being found by Hinshelwood’s deep cross.
The Seagulls were not to be denied for long and hesitation in the Saints defence was pounced upon by Joao Pedro who coolly scooped the ball over the advancing Aaron Ramsdale to give Fabian Hurzeler’s side a deserved lead.
Southampton were struggling to break into the final third but Brazilian left-back Welington did force Bart Verbruggen to claw the ball over the bar with a curling shot from the edge of the area in a rare home attack.
Southampton thought they had equalised at the start of the second half when Cameron Archer neatly finished off a clever pass from Mateus Fernandes. Archer was flagged offside and VAR concurred, much to Ivan Juric’s frustration.
The Croatian boss was left even more red-faced when Brighton made it 2-0. Joe Aribo was adamant that he had been fouled by Rutter in the build-up but Darren Bond waved away the protests and Yankuba Minteh was left with the simple task of rolling the ball across the six-yard box for Rutter to prod home his fifth league goal of the season.
The game as a contest was over but Brighton had plenty of chances to add to their tally. Minteh had the goal at his mercy as he cut inside from the left but Ramsdale scrambled back to get a hand to his weak effort and Kyle Walker-Peters completed the clearance.
It was just a temporary reprieve as another brilliant touch from Joao Pedro sent Mitoma clear and the Japanese forward coolly dinked the ball over Ramsdale to score his fifth goal in seven games and cue a mass exodus in the home stands.
Those who had remained saw Brighton add a simple fourth as Brajan Gruda’s corner fell to the unmarked Hinselwood at the far post from where the 19-year-old scored his second goal of the campaign.
