Nick Szczepanik's press verdict: Leeds United

A splendid Albion performance at Leeds on Saturday was done full justice in the Sunday papers by some of the written media’s finest operators.  What more could armchair Seagulls fans – which is all of us these days – want from a weekend?

Too often, a good Brighton display in the North can feel overlooked as reports concentrate on the failings of a big local club. Not this time.  Almost all the writers savoured the team’s display and the excellence of Neal Maupay’s winning goal - and no apology should be necessary for this round-up including description after description of the flowing move that created it.

The Sunday Times sent their chief sports reporter, David Walsh, to Elland Road for a rare glimpse of the Albion and he liked what he saw. “At the end the referee Kevin Friend blew his whistle and a few Brighton & Hove Albion players jumped into the air,” he wrote. “The centre backs chest-bumped and everywhere the men in blue smiled. Almost two months had passed since they last won a Premier League game and they know they’re better than that. They just needed to show it.

“Though the margin of victory was just one goal the difference between the teams was greater. Putting it simply, Brighton had more quality. Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard are incisive on the ball and will create chances against better defences than Leeds United’s. At the back, the three centre backs Adam Webster, Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn all played well.

“For Leeds the greatest difficulty was Brighton’s refusal to allow them to build their attacks from the back. Brighton’s defence began with Neal Maupay, Mac Allister and Trossard and the front three were good without the ball and very good with it. All the harrying forced Leeds into playing too many long and hopeful punts upfield and into that zone patrolled by Brighton’s three centre backs.

“It was from one such Luke Ayling clearance in the 15th minute that Brighton created the goal. Burn won the header, cushioning it to Solly March who flicked it on to Pascal Gross. That was all neat but what followed was clever and incisive. Ben White took the ball on and rolled it into the path of Mac Allister.

“An Argentine playmaker with Scottish ancestry is likely to have something about him and once Mac Allister started running towards goal, Leeds were in trouble. While taking the ball to his right, Mac Allister pulled back his right foot as if he intended to shoot but instead played a short inside pass to Trossard and kept running.

“The Belgian international laid a return pass into the path of the Argentine and this was all so well executed that Ayling just stood and watched in admiration. That allowed Maupay to peel away to the far post and side foot Mac Allister’s cut-back into an unguarded goal.

“Leeds were better in the second half. Showing more urgency and energy they controlled possession for long periods but without creating much. For all the crosses, there were few anxieties for Brighton’s defence. Burn, Dunk and Webster never looked like giving a goal away and Webster took time out from his defending to mosey upfield and fire in a shot that Kiko Casilla did well to parry.”

Phil Thomas’s entertaining report in The Sun on Sunday was a minor classic of its kind. He went in on the state of the Elland Road playing surface, which was originally laid for Euro 96 and has none of the synthetic blades that keep the turf in most Premier League stadiums in good shape. And the puns just kept on coming.

“Gold standard for Brighton, bog standard for Leeds…and growing grounds for concern at Elland Road,” he wrote. “Yet very much a pitch perfect afternoon as far as the Seagulls are concerned, after Neal Maupay’s early tap-in brought a first Prem win in ten games. Maupay stroked home from bang in front of goal after Leeds – the team feted as Yorkshire’s own tiki-taka maestros – got a dose of their own medicine.

“Heavy weather then for Bielsa and his boys. And a heavy, boggy home surface threatening to scupper the Argentine manager’s stylistic demands. For this pitch, in this era of football on bowling greens, is the worst in the division. A 1970s throwback more Baseball Ground than Barcelona.

“Head groundsman Kiel Barrett deserves a medal for even getting it to this state. The condensed close season meant plans to reconstruct a pitch now 25 years old had to be shelved for another 12 months and this is the result.

“Not that the men in white could use that as an excuse for how flat-footed they were at times. Their opponents managed to ping it around highly impressively with their 16^th minute winner.

“Pascal Gross started it with the deftest of volleyed flicks to send Ben White strolling through a huge gap in the midfield. The man who became a hero in his season-long loan here in last year’s Championship-winning march, handed over to Alex Mac Allister. And when he traded passes with Leandro Trossard and drilled in a low cross, Maupay had the simple job of finishing off from little more than a yard.

“It was the sort of move Bielsa demands from his own side – and one even the men in white stood and admired. That seemed to be the case, at least. There was little else to explain how Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas were nowhere in sight when Maupay tapped home.

“The side which has been showered with praise all season were woeful in the first half. And although they stepped up the pace after the break, Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez still didn’t exactly need the game of his life. The Seagulls were solid, strong and secure. Rarely did Leeds come close. Frankly they were muddy awful.”

Louise Taylor’s words in The Observer were also music to Sussex ears. “Marcelo Bielsa’s side have had much better days and a big part of that was down to Brighton’s excellence,” she wrote. “Graham Potter’s team were so good that it was extremely hard to credit that this was their first Premier League win since November.

“On this immensely encouraging evidence it is hard to imagine Brighton being involved in the struggle to avoid relegation for much longer but recent results suggest otherwise and Potter will be concerned by his players’ failure to translate considerable superiority into more than a slender one-goal victory.

“Considering it involved a once cherished former employee and a compatriot, the construction of the opening goal possibly proved extra painful for Bielsa. First Ben White, who excelled on loan at Elland Road last season, dribbled assuredly from central midfield before playing in Alexis Mac Allister.

“The 21-year-old Argentinian previously impressed on loan at Boca Juniors and his attacking midfield skills were abundantly evident as he deceived Kiko Casilla before engaging Leandro Trossard in an exquisite one-two. It concluded with Mac Allister luring Casilla off his line, leaving Neal Maupay to arrive in the right place at the right time to meet his pass and tap the ball into the empty net from point blank range.

“All positional interchanging and uplifting one and two touch passing sequences, Potter’s side were making light work of the heaviest of pitches but Leeds looked as if they were merely continuing where they left off last Sunday. That unscheduled FA Cup reverse at Crawley began looking more than a blip as Brighton outmaneuvered Bielsa’s players in all departments and Trossard saw a shot rebound off the crossbar after taking a deflection off Luke Ayling.”

Luke Edwards of the Sunday Telegraph won the race to get quotes into an online report. He wrote: “Brighton have played well and failed to win far too often but nobody can say they did deserve a much-needed victory as they inflicted a third successive defeat on Leeds United for the first time under Marcelo Bielsa.

“It was another poor performance from Leeds, lacking most of the things that have made them so enjoyable to watch since they returned to the Premier League. Brighton outplayed them in the first half and snuffed them out in the second, doggedly defending the early lead Neal Maupay had given them.

“’We showed great personality as well as quality,” said Brighton boss Graham Potter, whose side saw less of the ball than they are used to but were far more effective with it.  ‘Apart from maybe one game, the performance levels have been quite good but if you don’t get results then you are going to get some criticism. Our challenge has always been to turn performances into results’.”