The Football Pink

A swirling wind blew around Anfield all afternoon, and for a quarter of an hour so did Brighton. Then, in the space of four minutes, Liverpool took the game away from them.

The visitors should have been ahead. On 14 minutes Pascal Gross cut the ball back and Yasin Ayari, with the goal at his mercy, blazed it over. Three minutes later the same Gross was turning the ball into his own net. Ronald Araujo's cross was only half-cleared, Florian Wirtz drove the loose ball low, and it went in off the Brighton midfielder.

The second goal was all Bradley Barcola's doing. He charged down Olivier Boscagli's attempted clearance, chased after the deflection, shrugged off a challenge and cut it back from the right. Alexander Isak guided it in from close range. That's six goals in six Premier League games for him.

Brighton's ball, Liverpool's points

After that, Brighton had the ball and Liverpool had the game. The visitors had 64 per cent of possession, but only one shot on target all afternoon. Ayari bent one against the post on 36 minutes, and Bart Verbruggen twice denied Cody Gakpo and tipped away a thunderous Araujo drive before the break.

Wirtz went off with an ankle knock, and his replacement Trey Nyoni made a last-ditch tackle on Maxim De Cuyper that the 60,404 inside Anfield cheered as loudly as a goal. Jeremy Jacquet and Araujo kept throwing themselves in front of the ball, and the home crowd loved every block.

I think today the key was how we started. We needed a stronger start, be aggressive, recover the ball, win our duels, be dangerous in transitions.

Andoni Iraola, Liverpool head coach

We made two easy mistakes to give them a present to score two goals.

Fabian Hürzeler, Brighton head coach

It was Brighton's first defeat since August. Liverpool had only about a third of the ball, one of their lowest shares on record, but they won the game in four minutes, and that was all they needed.