Whatever happens, it is going to be a season to savour for Luton supporters. A decade after their side kicked off their fourth season in a row in the depths of the National League, only a late Brighton onslaught after João Pedro’s contentious penalty broke the resolve of the Premier League new boys.
While Brighton fully deserved their victory in a week they were forced to deal with the distraction of Moisés Caicedo’s future, this was at no point an easy ride. Luton defended valiantly throughout and even looked like they might snatch something when Carlton Morris slotted home their first Premier League goal from the penalty spot with 10 minutes to play.
But it was the substitute Simon Adingra who settled this after a mistake from Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu before Evan Ferguson rounded things off with a late fourth.
“We were right in the game but we shot ourselves in the foot,” said Luton’s manager, Rob Edwards. “At this level you get punished and that shows the ruthless nature of the league. The players said we showed we belong at this level but they have to learn quickly.”
The size of Luton’s task after they returned to the top flight for the first time in 31 years was underlined by the fact that Roberto De Zerbi was able to select a team boasting more than 1,600 Premier League appearances – albeit 620 to a 37-year-old called James Milner – while his counterpart could rely on 63 as he handed five summer signings their debuts.
With Alexis Mac Allister departed and Caicedo expected to follow him, De Zerbi turned to the Germany international Mahmoud Dahoud to fill the void and deployed Milner at right-back.
They and João Pedro, the £30m club record signing from Watford, made a strong impression on their debuts but the Brighton manager was particularly delighted with the Ivory Coast forward Adingra – who spent last season on loan at Union SG, Brighton’s sister club in Belgium – after the 21-year-old’s decisive goal seven minutes after coming off the bench with Ferguson.
“He can play with the same quality on the left or the right,” said De Zerbi. “But we have a lot of attacking options this season.”
Much to the delight of the away supporters behind the goal who barracked him all afternoon, João Pedro wasted a golden opportunity to give Brighton the lead inside five minutes when his shot somehow skewed off target. Despite dominating possession, they had to wait until 10 minutes before half-time for the breakthrough and it came from a familiar source as Solly March nodded home Kaoru Mitoma’s perfect cross to the back post.
Brighton were relieved to scramble the ball away following a corner after Jason Steele had saved from Morris. Danny Welbeck then stuck a post as the half ended in frenetic fashion, with a yellow card shown to Mitoma for kicking the ball away.
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Brighton came within inches of stretching their lead straight after the restart when Thomas Kaminski pushed Milner’s close-range shot on to the post. It took another strong save to deny March his second after a flowing move and he was unlucky not to save João Pedro’s penalty after the Brazilian went down very easily under a challenge from Tom Lockyer that was surprisingly not overturned by VAR.
David Coote opted to award a penalty at the other end with 10 minutes to play, this time for a handball against Lewis Dunk when it seemed to have struck his trailing arm. Morris stroked home from the spot before Adingra pounced on Mpanzu’s error inside his own penalty area and Ferguson tapped home Pervis Estupiñán’s cross to seal the points for Brighton.
