Brighton leapfrogged Man City into second place in the Premier League table with a 2-0 win over 10-man Brentford.
The job was done for the Seagulls by the break, with Diego Gomez and Pascal Gross scoring either side of the straight red card shown to Bees striker Igor Thiago after he caught Chema in the face with his arm and split his lip.
As a result, Fabian Hurzeler’s side enter the November international break five points behind league leaders Arsenal.
Brighton took the lead after 15 minutes in stunning fashion. Gomez seized on a poor defensive header and arrowed an unstoppable strike – worthy of all superlatives – high into the top-left corner.
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Diego Gomez THUNDERBOLT fires Brighton ahead against Brentford!
And the outlook improved significantly for the hosts less than 10 minutes later, when Thiago was given his marching orders after referee Michael Oliver’s brief visit to the VAR monitor to overturn his original decision to show the Brazilian only a yellow.
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Igor Thiago sees red for forearm clash after VAR review
It was attack vs defence thereafter, with Brighton putting Brentford under heavy pressure. They got their reward when they were given a penalty after Keane Lewis-Potter dragged Luka Vuskovic to the deck as a corner was delivered from the right.
The execution from Gross was near-perfect; a thumping penalty into the postage stamp that Caoimhin Kelleher had no chance of stopping.
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Pascal Gross converts from the penalty spot to double Brighton lead
Brighton’s comfort in the game was never in doubt after the break. They had almost 80 per cent possession and various chances – though there was little of quality, on the whole.
By then the wind had long been taken from the sails of Brentford, whose 200th Premier League game ended in misery.
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