HELL hath no fury like a striker scorned.
A day after being left out of Thomas Tuchel’s mega England squad, Danny Welbeck turned his anger on Liverpool with a double to dent their Champions League pursuit.
Arne Slot must have thought he had finally cracked it with a rampant win over Galatasaray in midweek.
It turns out the Turks are just a bit naff and Liverpool are still in the mire, passing up the chance to move into the top four.
They were not helped by the absences of Alisson and Mohammed Salah, while Huge Ekitike was forced off early.
But the Reds still had bags of quality out there, but no one played with the freedom or confidence to show it and it took a Lewis Dunk mistake for their only goal of the day from Milos Kerkez.
Questions over Slot’s future have felt premature, but he has built a squad who looked scared of their own shadows here. This was Liverpool’s tenth defeat of the Premier League season – they have not hit that tally for a decade, the season Jurgen Klopp arrived on the scene.
His successor Slot started with a front two of Cody Gakpo and Ekitike, though that lasted just seven minutes.
After an early hit from ex-Red James Milner, Ekitike tried to battle on but was forced off and replaced by Curtis Jones, meaning Florian Wirtz joined Gakpo up top.
The visitors’ spring trip to the seaside was showing few signs of improving either. A delayed kick-off, a striker down early on and it wasn’t even as warm as it looked.
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On top of all that, inside 15 minutes, they were behind.
The Reds allowed Ferdi Kadioglu the space to lift a cross to the far post where Diego Gomez nodded back across goal, Welbeck rose above Ibrahima Konate with alarming ease and turned it in.
Liverpool had looked back to their best against Galatasaray in midweek, but were struggling to keep up with Brighton here and Gomez had the chance to make it two but headed over from Yankuba Minteh’s cross.
Slot’s men eventually managed to steady themselves and went in search of a leveller.
Dominik Szoboszlai was driving and trying to force things himself from midfield, with Liverpool looking rather disjointed.
But they did manage to turn the heat up with a string of set-pieces, though there were few clear cut chances. But why create chances of your own when the opposing captain can do it for you?
After the Seagulls successfully defended another Liverpool corner, the ball was forced back all the way to Giorgi Marmadashvili, in for the injured Allison.
The Georgian’s hopeful punt forward looked harmless. That was until Dunk became involved, trying to head it back to Bart Verbruggen behind him but not noticing Kerkez racing behind.
Kerkez reached the ball first and managed a smart clipped finish over the Brighton keeper for just his second Liverpool goal.
It appeared to send the Seagulls skipper into a spin, with a discombobulated Dunk almost putting the ball into his own net off his chest when attempting to coolly deal with a Jeremie Frimpong cross just before the break.
Brighton had looked comfortable until Dunk’s lapse, with the champions continuing to look dysfunctional – especially now without a recognised striker.
The Reds had plenty of the ball but appeared reluctant to try too much, afraid to stray too far from their designated roles.
Brighton, on the other hand, were far more dangerous when they did snatch possession. Kadioglu drove inside from left-back and saw his effort stopped by Marmadashvili.
Minteh was a constant runaway threat down the left, constantly escaping the clutches of Frimpong.
Frimpong was not even on the scene when Minteh helped to craft Welbeck’s second.
Tracked by Szboszlai instead of the actual Liverpool right-back, Minteh whipped a wicked cross deep to the far post, where Jack Hinshelwood had slipped behind the Liverpool defence to square for Welbeck to tap in.
The goal survived a very tight VAR check for offside, the tech confirming the decision from the eagle-eyed linesman to allow it to stand.
Frimpong was hooked for young Rio Ngumoha, though it was Brighton’s forwards who continued to threaten.
Mamardashvili made a flying stop from a powerful Gomez free-kick before denying Minteh one-on-one, with the wide man having been set loose by some superb play from Welbeck.
Kaoru Mitoma was swapped in for Minteh and took up the tormenting, ghosting past Jones and Szboszlai to tee up Hinshelwood who fluffed a sitter which should have made it three before Yasin Ayari saw his volley blocked on the line by Jones.
A third would have capped the afternoon, but that it was not needed says everything about Liverpool’s sorry showing.
