The Media Review: Leicester City

What a time to be an Albion fan. Not only did we watch Graham Potter’s team run up its highest score in a top-flight game on Sunday but we also had the chance to savour the praise from the national sporting press the morning after.

James Gheerbrant set the tone in a report on The Times’ website whose headline spoke of “Brutal Brighton.” Like many writers, he led his report with a reference to the former Premier League champions and FA Cup winners, but soon moved to an appreciation of Albion’s performance. 

“Leicester City remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League after a far superior Brighton & Hove Albion team were eventually able to wrest control of this absorbing, see-sawing game,” he wrote. 

“Brighton played some outstanding attacking football, racking up 23 shots and shrugging off one of the most disappointing VAR overturns of all time, which erased Alexis Mac Allister’s goal-of-the-season contender.

“The transformation wrought over several seasons by Graham Potter on this once cussed, defensive team is one of the finest coaching jobs in football, and it found full expression here. By the end, Brighton were playing swaggering, walking-pace keep ball against a team that twice made it to the brink of the Champions League, and which now looks to be approaching terminal velocity on the long fall down.”

After Leicester’s early opener, “Brighton responded quickly. Before 10 minutes were out, a long cross from the right picked out Leandro Trossard, who stood up a lovely, curling cross to the back post. March was undeniable, getting above Thomas, and thudding a header in off the body of the full-back.

“Leicester were already a mess, looking shipwrecked by every transition, and visibly wilting in confidence as Brighton’s quick, crisp passing and clever pressing encamped them in their own half.

“Before long, they were behind. James Maddison’s pass was cut out on halfway by Enock Mwepu, who then breezed past the Leicester midfielder far too easily. From there, Brighton had a three-on-two, and they leveraged it brilliantly, Mwpeu striding forward, drawing Jonny Evans and then slipping it wide to Caicedo, like a rugby centre milking an overlap. Caicedo’s finish, whipped across Danny Ward into the far corner, was unerring.”

As John Aizlewood wrote in The Daily Telegraph, “for anyone not of a Leicester persuasion, this was a fabulous game, brimming with goals, lambent attacking play and calamitous defending.

“On Brighton steamrollered. Thomas’s early yellow card was a blessing to his tormentor March and illustrating how fragile Leicester’s morale was, when Wilfred Ndidi’s wretched backpass was met by an equally wretched Ward touch. Welbeck robbed the nervy goalkeeper and landed a chip onto the roof of the net. Displaying rather more fire than when defending Brighton’s goals, Ndidi and Ward almost came to blows. 

“The second period seemed to have begun with as big a bang as the first when Alexis Mac Allister spectacularly fired past Ward. VAR intervened and eventually summoned referee Tony Harrington to the monitor, from where he pronounced the goal offside.

“Undeterred, Brighton pressed on and they swept ahead again when Trossard collected Gross’s precision pass, outpaced the lumbering Ndidi and slotted past Ward. Five minutes later, Ndidi’s misery was complete when he crudely upended Trossard in the area. Mac Allister coolly thrashed the penalty past Ward.

“As both sets of fans chanted “sacked in the morning” there was only one team in the game. There was still time for further humiliation in the seventh added minute when Mac Allister curled a delicious free kick into Ward’s top right-hand corner. A memorable afternoon for both teams, but in very different ways.”

Riath Al-Samarrai of The Daily Mail pointed out that, while Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward had a somewhat erratic game, he also helped keep the score respectable. Brighton had 23 shots and deserved more than five,” he wrote. “How many? Maybe seven or eight or nine - what a game Danny Ward had in making so many saves, and what a dog’s breakfast of a defence that meant he was so busy.

“Sure, the game was won by Brighton. It was won by their response in going down after 53 seconds to Kelechi Iheanacho, with the own goal by Luke Thomas followed by strikes from Moises Caicedo and the brilliant Leandro Trossard, before two more from the better Alexis Mac Allister, who also had a screamer disallowed by the VAR at 2-2. But it wasn’t a day for that debate, because Brighton got it done without technological assistance. 

“They were immense, a team led by a manager in Graham Potter who is getting the best from his players, and a club that has found ways to emerge stronger from the sale of important assets.

“Brighton levelled through a Thomas own goal – the defender deflected a Solly March header into his net after being meekly beaten by him to a Trossard cross – and then led through Caicedo when Maddison was careless in losing possession. Patson Daka had Leicester level at the break, which went against all logic of the game, but in the second half everything went wrong for Rodgers.

“It opened with a reprieve, when Mac Allister’s thunderbolt from 25 yards was disallowed by the VAR because Enock Mwepu was offside, but even with that let off, Leicester were shot down. The third goal came when Mac Allister rode yet another weak challenge from Maddison, leading to a Trossard finish, and the fourth came from a Mac Allister penalty after Ndidi hacked down Trossard. The final act of a savage kicking saw Mac Allister nail a beauty of a free-kick seven minutes into stoppage time.

“He had a great game. So did Brighton as a whole. They truly are full value for where they sit in the league. Sadly for Leicester, the same could be said of both clubs.”

Sam Dalling of The Guardian also picked out the South American with the Scottish surname for special praise. 

“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,” he wrote. “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.

“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.”

As for Ally Mac’s disallowed thunderbolt, opinions generally agreed that there had, indeed, been an offside offence in the build-up, but every paper questioned the time it took to reach that conclusion. 

Isabelle Barker wrote in The Sun that “the scoreline could have been uglier had the Argentine's thunderbolt strike on 47 minutes not been ruled off for offside after a shambolic VAR check.

“Pascal Gross' free-kick was cleared only as far as Mac Allister who unleashed a rocket strike into the top corner, sparking mayhem at the Amex.

“But a cacophony of boos rang around the south coast stadium as there was a lengthy VAR review for an offside in the build up before referee Tony Harrington checked the monitor. 

“A host of Albion players were on the wrong side of the Leicester defence as the free-kick came in so there was a delay with getting the lines up to properly check the offside.

“Graham Potter shook his head in fury at the chaotic review and to make matters worse it was then chalked off due to Mwepu being offside and making contact before the ball fell to Mac Allister.”

Earlier, she had noted that “the result cemented Brighton's place in the top four while Leicester are now winless in their first six games and rock bottom of the Premier League table.

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“Leandro Trossard whipped an inch-perfect cross onto March’s noggin that bounced into the net off Luke Thomas’ body. 

“Just six minutes later Brighton hit a second as James Maddison gave away the ball to Enock Mwepu, who broke free and released Moises Caicedo into the box, took a touch and lashed it into the far corner. 

“You can see why Graham Potter joked that £42million would only cover the cost for Caicedo’s boots and that he’s worth £100m when the transfer window was opened.”

The Daily Star website was also disappointed at the VAR ruling and sampled the mood of the nation in its support: “Jeff Stelling tweeted: ‘Well done VAR. One of the great goals ruled out for something nobody even appealed for.’

"’VAR totally sucking the joy out of football,’ another added. While a third tweeted: "For God’s sake man, how is it an obvious offside if it took 5 minutes to figure it out?’

“Another joked: ‘Don't care if it's the right decision, you shouldn't be allowed to disallow a goal like that’.”