Brighton 5-0 Crystal Palace: Seagulls go second after crushing derby rivals

Brighton crushed rivals in the M23 Derby Crystal Palace to maintain his excellent form and increase the pressure on Eagles boss Pierre Sage.

the hosts, which rose to second place in the Premier League table at least for a few hoursthey were 3-0 up inside 10 minutes when Palace were blown away.

Jaydee Canvot’s own goal started the rout with a wonderful goal from Diego Gomez and another from Yasin Ayari putting Brighton in complete control.

Charalampos Kostoulas made it 4-0 early in the second half and most of a very unhappy away finish was back in London when Jack Hinshelwood scored a fifth with six minutes remaining.

The only positive from a dismal afternoon for Palace was the return of striker Jean-Philippe Mateta after a two-month injury lay-off.

Brighton’s first breakouts are the Eagles

The visitors enjoyed their victory over former manager Oliver Glasner and Nottingham Forest last weekend but suffered a Europa League defeat at Lyon in midweek. They ran into a boisterous Amex crowd on the south coast and were unable to settle into the game.

Just four minutes had passed when Pascal Gross took a free-kick from the left and Canvot rose to head it into his own net.

Brighton went for the kill and Gomez scored a stunning second three minutes later, picking up the ball just inside the Palace half and drilling an incredible shot past Palace goalkeeper Walter Benítez.

The visitors were kissing each other and the game was effectively over when Kostoulas back-heeled Ayari and fired into the net.

Kostoulas got his name on the scoresheet in the 49th minute, capitalizing on a fortunate rebound to fire over and Hinshelwood scored from close range after Benitez had saved a header from Luka Vuskovic.

Mateta hit the crossbar for Palace and Jefferson Lerma hit the post, but it was a dismal afternoon for Sage, who will know he needs a good result against Newcastle next weekend.