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Liverpool suffered their sixth Premier League defeat of the season as they were thrashed 3-0 by Brighton & Hove Albion at The Amex on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have yet to taste victory since the turn of the year and were on the back foot against against Roberto De Zerbi’s side for the entirety of the match. They went unpunished until the second half when Solly March was at the double — with two goals six minutes apart — before Danny Welbeck scored on 82 minutes to see Brighton leapfrog Liverpool into seventh place.
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“Massively frustrated, congratulations to Brighton on a super game against a bad opponent. We were not good today, I can’t remember a good phase or period,” Klopp said.
“Doing better than today should be easy, because this is a really low point. I can’t remember a worse game.”
Brighton enjoyed a dominant spell of possession in the opening proceedings without truly threatening Alisson in goal.
The lively Kaoru Mitoma caused numerous problems for Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Japanese forward found space in behind on 29 minutes but could only scuff his effort across the face of goal.
The visitors struggled to contain Brighton and looked to have succumbed to the pressure when they gave away a penalty on 41 minutes as a flailing Alisson clipped the heels of March in the box. The forward, though, was adjudged to have been offside in the lead-up after a VAR check and the decision was overturned.
But after the break, Brighton were rewarded for their continued dominance as, just two minutes after the break, March opened the scoring.
World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister pounced on a slack touch by Joel Matip before laying off to Mitoma, who delivered a cross which March tapped home.
Just six minutes later, March punished Liverpool further, Brighton’s No. 7 doubling his tally for the afternoon with an emphatic strike. After being played through by Evan Ferguson, March took the ball wide and from 18 yards, unleashed a fierce effort past Alisson and into the far corner.
March turned provider on 82 minutes as Brighton made the victory even more comfortable, Welbeck scoring their third of the afternoon.
Welbeck capitalised on more calamitous defending from Liverpool as he fantastically looped the ball over Joe Gomez from the throw in and fired a low effort past Alisson.
“We are really happy for the result, for the quality of play,” De Zerbi said. “We expected another tactical disposition of the opponent but we understood immediately the different situation and responded fantastically. I have a fantastic team of fantastic players and for me it is an honour to work with them.”
