It almost felt cruel that with the final kick of the game Alexis Mac Allister curled Brighton’s fifth into the corner of Leicester City’s goal. The Argentinian had the brace his sparkling performance at the base of midfield deserved after his wonderful earlier strike was denied by VAR with the scores level.
Signed back in January 2019, Mac Allister perfectly embodies the Brighton blueprint: buy young, allow to develop on loan, and then watch flourish. In his new deeper role, following Yves Bissouma’s summer departure, Mac Allister is doing precisely that.
“He’s got that quality,” said Graham Potter. “The fifth goal was a result of practice so credit to him. Alexis has had to be patient, wait for his time, be disappointed and support the team from the side. He epitomises what the team is about.”
The question is how far can Brighton — who end the weekend fourth — go? Footloose, fluid and, perhaps critically, clinical now. Leicester came, went ahead and were swept away.
Trailing to a Kelechi Iheanacho goal inside a minute, Potter’s side had reversed the deficit within quarter of an hour through a Luke Thomas own goal and Moisés Caicedo. Patson Daka levelled for Leicester before the break, but second-half efforts from Leandro Trossard and Mac Allister, who converted a penalty to make it four, secured a deserved victory.
“Great performance, great result, great atmosphere,” summarised Potter, who also heaped praise on the collective.
Life gets no easier for Brendan Rodgers. There was more than a hint of self-preservation to his well-publicised media comments this week, but the distraction-cum-excuse of the transfer window is no longer available.
A squad Rodgers has, multiple times, emphasised needs a refresh, looks stagnant. They remain rock-bottom. “It’s like a jigsaw,” a forlorn Rodgers said afterwards. “We’ve got pieces missing. And it’s a constant challenge to try to fill the gaps; that’s the reality of where we are.”
But after five straight league defeats and with supporter unrest growing, Rodgers will not walk away: “I’ve always come in early and finished late at night,” he said. “Until somebody tells me differently, I’ll continue to do that. We have to embrace the challenge. I’m certainly not going to shirk it.”
Both clubs made healthy summer profits courtesy of Chelsea, but that is where the similarities end. These teams are on very different trajectories.
Brighton under Potter are very much looking upward. Despite losing arguably their three best players from last season — Bissouma, Marc Cucurella and Neal Maupay — they look perfectly synced.
Leicester need to learn to swim again but are splashing around wildly. They have “fight”, as Rodgers said afterwards, but at times on Sunday it turned inward.
He had spent the past 72 hours recalibrating both Leicester’s expectations and his starting line-up. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jamie Vardy were replaced by Iheanacho and Daka, and both rotations were instantly justifiable.
Inside a minute, Youri Tielemans outmuscled Solly March and fed Harvey Barnes, who in turn slipped Daka away down the left. Iheanacho tapped in. But Brighton’s new swagger means heads did not drop. Instead, they swarmed. First, Trossard stood the ball up at the back post for March, who atoned by nodding in via a deflection off Thomas.
Then a stray James Maddison pass was cut out by Enock Mwepu who stormed forward. Caicedo finished calmly and the Amex suddenly erupted. Still only 15 minutes had passed.
When Danny Ward miscontrolled Wilfred Ndidi’s back-pass, Danny Welbeck almost put Brighton further in front. It summed up the state of Leicester: a toxic cocktail of angst and sloppiness. A like-for-like Kasper Schmeichel replacement, Ward is not.
Soon after, and against the run of play, Leicester were level. And the ease at which the goal came would have irked Potter.
Barnes intercepted Adam Webster’s punt forward, and Tielemans clipped a high ball through for Daka. Lewis Dunk was caught off guard and, after taking a perfect first touch, Daka curled in.
The second half almost started as rapidly as the first. Mac Allister’s first-time strike was sensational, flying past Ward after Leicester had half-cleared. But Chris Kavanagh on VAR duty advised Tony Harrington to review the pitchside monitor for a possible offside from Gross’ initial free-kick.
If it takes multiple people more than four minutes to reach a conclusion, there needs to be some external communication.
Eventually, though, Mwepu was adjudged to have interfered with play. “It’s probably by a millimetre or two the right decision,” said a carefully-treading Potter.
Fuelled by perceived injustice, Brighton poured forward and re-took the lead when Gross stabbed forward to Trossard who finished across Ward. The fourth came when Trossard jinxed cleverly past Ndidi on the byline and was brought down inside the box. Mac Allister drilled the resulting penalty down the middle before curling into the corner deep in injury-time. Leicester’s wound was already gaping.
