imon Adingra shone brightly in a commanding 5-0 win over a ten-man Sheffield United at Brammall Lane on Sunday afternoon.Adingra rounded off the win, with a deflected effort on 85 minutes, his second of the game. Written by Joe Zelinger
The away side were favourites before the game, despite not having won in their previous six away league games, and were helped with the sending off of Mason Holgate on 13 minutes. The defender, on loan from Everton, went in with a strong, high challenge on Mitoma, and was initially shown a yellow card. However, VAR intervened and upgraded it to a red, a nightmare start for the hosts. Brighton wasted no time capitalizing on their numerical superiority, with Facundo Buananotte slotting the ball home from extremely close range after a corner.
Prior to the goal, Lewis Dunk whipped a cross into Danny Welbeck, who couldn’t get anything on it, but took a touch off a Sheffield United defender and went behind. From the corner, Dunk was involved again, heading back into the danger area at the back post, and Buananotte was in the right place at the right time to give the visitors the lead.
Sheffield United tried to respond quickly, with Gustavo Hamer going on a mazy run into the box, only for his effort to be saved by Bart Verbruggen. However, just minutes later, Brighton doubled their lead through Welbeck.
A good bit of approach play down the right came to Pascal Gross on the edge of the box, who swung in a deep cross to Mitoma. The winger’s effort was saved by Wes Foderingham, but fortunately it fell to Welbeck who lashed it into the back of the net from inside the six-yard box.
Brighton looked to be on their way to a crucial away win, however for the Blades the game had echoes of their last home result, where they ended up losing 5-0 to Aston Villa.
The Seagulls continued to cruise in the game, with Mitoma at the heart of everything, however, Sheffield Utd momentarily thought they were back in it with a Ben Osborn goal after he finished inside the box following a corner, but it was ruled out for a foul in the build-up.
It was one-way traffic in the second half as Brighton aimed to make sure of the win, and the points were secured on 75 mins after Jack Robinson turned Mitoma’s cross into his own net.
Mitoma had been putting balls into the box all afternoon down the left-hand side, so it felt only a matter of time before it paid off. Roberto de Zerbi’s side then added a fourth three minutes later through Adingra.
The Ivorian, who had just come back from winning AFCON, took Gross’ cross first time and swept in a clever volley to mark the perfect return. Adingra’s day then got even better, as his shot inside the box took a big deflection off Jayden Bogle and looped into the Sheffield United net.
The result lifts Brighton up to 7th after Newcastle and West Ham both dropped points on Saturday, whilst Sheffield United stay rock bottom with another heavy defeat at home and means they have now conceded the most goals of any side at this stage of a Premier League season.
Brighton will target back-to-back league wins for the first time since September when they welcome Everton at the AMEX next Saturday. As for Sheffield United, games are running out in order for them to avoid the drop. They travel to Wolves next Sunday.
