Fabian Hurzeler watched Diego Gomez take left-foot shots in training on Friday and walked away convinced the Paraguay midfielder would not score with that foot on Sunday. Gomez then collected a cleared cross 25 yards from goal and drove a left-footed strike into the top corner, the first of two first-half goals in Brighton's 2-0 win over Brentford that lifted the Seagulls into second place in the Premier League.
It was only Gomez's second league goal of the season. The first, three weeks earlier against Crystal Palace at the same stadium, came from the halfway line with his stronger right foot and is on the Premier League's goal-of-the-month shortlist for October. Sunday's was still from distance. This time it came with the foot Hurzeler had just seen fail him.
The session that looked like nothing
Hurzeler told The Argus that Gomez had been practicing left-foot shooting on Friday without much joy. "He shot once, twice, the third time, and I couldn't see him scoring today with a left foot," the Brighton head coach said. "The shots weren't great so I asked him today after the game where he got this quality from overnight. It's a huge improvement in a very short period!"
Gomez is known as a right-footed shooter, which is why the goal surprised his own manager more than the Palace strike did. Hurzeler went on to praise the midfielder's reliability and work rate, calling the finish a reward for a player "who always puts the team first" and "a prime example if a player has belief and confidence in himself."
The chance itself started with a clearance, not a scripted move. Michael Kayode headed away Joao Costinha's cross from the right, according to Brentford's official match report, and Gomez met the loose ball about 25 yards out. Caoimhin Kelleher had no chance as it flew into the top corner. Gomez, whom Brighton signed from Inter Miami, now has two Premier League goals this season, and both have come from well outside the penalty area.
A yellow that became a red
Eight minutes later the afternoon tilted further. Igor Thiago, who had already failed to lob Bart Verbruggen after getting goalside of Lewis Dunk, tangled with Chema Andrés. Michael Oliver showed a yellow. VAR official Stuart Attwell sent Oliver to the monitor, and the referee upgraded it to a straight red for violent conduct after the Brazilian's arm caught Andrés in the face. Sky Sports reported that the contact split Andrés's lip. The Guardian wrote that Stockley Park's verdict was violent conduct "with force," and that Thiago will miss the rest of Brentford's November games.
Keith Andrews did not dress it up afterward. "We obviously gave them a leg-up with the sending-off and the penalty. It then becomes very difficult," the Brentford head coach said, according to the club. "We need to learn from that, grow as a group and react in better ways."
Brentford's 200th Premier League game, without a shot on target
Brighton already led when they were awarded a penalty three minutes before halftime. Keane Lewis-Potter pulled down Luka Vuskovic as a corner came in, and Pascal Gross hammered the spot-kick into the top corner.
The visitors were playing their 200th Premier League game, which Brentford confirmed before kickoff, and they did not put a single shot on target in 90 minutes, according to BBC Sport. Brighton finished with 75.3 percent of the ball, 20 shots to five and six on target to none. They had 42 touches in the opposition box to Brentford's seven, and the expected-goals split was 2.20 to 0.73.
Kristoffer Ajer said Brentford "came here with a clear plan, but they scored a wonder goal and we had a man sent off." He thought his side showed the fight Andrews asked for at halftime, "but we weren't really close to getting back into the game."
Second, and the gap they closed
The win was Brighton's sixth in seven league matches and their seventh of the season, and it took them above Manchester City into second with 22 points from 10 games. Arsenal remain first on 27. City, who conceded three goals to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, sit third on 21.
The table now matches the underlying numbers. Brighton have scored 26 Premier League goals, the most in the division, and conceded seven, the second-fewest behind Arsenal's five. The Argus noted Sunday was their seventh clean sheet of the league campaign. BBC Sport added another measure of how they score: only Paris Saint-Germain, with 11, and Bayern Munich, with 10, have more goals from outside the box than Brighton's eight this season.
It was also a return home after five straight away games in all competitions, a stretch The Guardian put at more than 5,000 miles and that included wins at Manchester City and Getafe. Attendance at the American Express Stadium was 31,629.
Brighton go into the international break five points behind Arsenal not because of one wonder strike, but because the player who scored from halfway with his right foot can now do the same with a left foot that looked ordinary two days earlier. That is a difficult thing for the rest of the league to plan against.
