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The same old for a frustrated Manchester United, but an exhilarating new hope at Brighton. After a summer when so much of the talk was of what might be possible at Old Trafford, a more interesting question for the Premier League might be just how high Fabian Hurzeler’s side can now go.
There can be no sense of this Brighton project plateauing after a victory like this, where the superb Joao Pedro scored a 95th-minute winner to raise the roof and clinch a fine 2-1 win. The defending was shambolic as three United players somehow left the scorer completely unmarked at the back post, but Brighton had more than displayed their willingness to seize it. Put more bluntly, a manager in the job for just two games still showed Erik ten Hag what to do to win it. The difference in the subs settled this game.
Hurzeler hasn’t exactly gone under the radar due to his young age at 31, but the relevance to that should be over whether it might see Brighton break their previous limits as a club. They can do more.
Many will point to Brighton’s new level of expenditure. More relevant is the way they again bossed a much more expensive side. They have made a habit of this with United.
It is an illustration that United still have so much more to do as a club. They were reminded they are still only in the very early stages of this relaunch. There had been a sense of getting away with it, and maybe even that they might snatch it, after the exciting Amad Diallo claimed an equaliser and continued to threaten. Instead, in the latest in a series of confusing decisions from Ten Hag, they changed tone with the subs again after his initial subs had been so effective.
In a familiar criticism, though, they didn’t have the same idea or control of the game as Brighton. There were ultimately more periods in the match when the home side were much the better team, particularly just after half-time and just before the end. They were in total command and pulling United this way and that.
That would usually be forgivable given what United are trying except for the inexperience of Hurzeler at this level. It points to a hugely exciting first season. As for United, that hope has immediately been dampened, because of familiar flaws.
The most pronounced difference to last season, which is going to be crucial to how this campaign goes, is at least that there is no longer a chasm of space in United’s midfield. Opponents can’t just run through there any more, which happened an alarming amount over the last year.
Nevertheless, that has brought a familiar dilemma, reminiscent of another previous Ajax coach. Like with manager Louis van Gaal, United can be competent and too controlled, or adventurous but far too open. There is little in between, other than the rare occasions – that this match did develop into – where they can break at pace.
That pattern was conditioned by Brighton finding a different way to play through United, to find the opening goal. Although the visiting staff may well point to Marcus Rashford losing the ball, the two passes that led to Danny Welbeck’s strike were sublime.
First, Joao Pedro skipped in one of those delightfully inviting and curving balls, that just beg for someone to slide in. Welbeck wasn’t ready that time. For the next, where Kaoru Mitoma immediately swerved back around, the former United striker just about managed to divert it into the goal this time.
It was Welbeck’s sixth goal against his boyhood club in 16 games, a much better record than his 29 in 142 while actually at Old Trafford. There have been many moments since when United have looked like they could do with him.
One, for a while, was this game. United struggled to produce much in the first half other than pot shots – and one admittedly brilliant Diogo Dalot cross that just demanded to be volleyed in by Amad.
It got worse when Brighton began to properly control the game – but only for a time. There was a spell when Hurzeler’s team were overrunning United, as was almost literal with James Milner’s chance shortly after half-time. Joao Pedro had again been brilliant in just sending Lisandro Martinez in the wrong direction, before driving forward. The ball was poked through to Milner who got it past Andre Onana, but it didn’t have quite enough on it to roll over the line.
Moments later, Welbeck hit the crossbar. Brighton were in such command, almost dictating the match with long searching passes, that it seemed certain a goal was coming – except the more they missed the more that felt like it would come for United.
Ten Hag had decided to overhaul his attack by bringing on Joshua Zirkzee, and United suddenly looked more comfortable being able to counter. Amad looked more than comfortable as he scorched down the right, embarrassed Jack Hinshelwood and then drove a strike that deflected into the back of the net.
Brighton had been punished in a few ways. More fortunately for them, Zirkzee was then punished for not being able to pull his leg out of the way. Alejandro Garnacho, on as a sub too, converted towards goal only for Zirkzee, in an offside position, to strike the ball with his knee. A clear offside, even if it was an unfortunate one.
A clear question now is whether Ten Hag will finally change this XI for the Liverpool game next week. After two games of the same line-up, it’s hard not to feel that United look more dangerous with Garnacho on that side rather than Marcus Rashford.
They go into that match in a very different mood than they might have, though. That was in part due to Ten Hag’s reactive subs, but mostly the adventure of Brighton. You could sense it when the board went up for seven minutes.
Hurzeler’s side laid siege. They found more than a few gaps. There was Joao Pedro unmarked, to score the inventive header that he and his team deserved.
