Brighton boss Graham Potter felt hard work in the centre of the park plus a touch of good fortune and a decent goalkeeper were behind victory over Arsenal.
The Seagulls won their first Premier League game since February 12 with a 2-1 triumph at the Emirates Stadium. Leandro Trossard’s curling effort gave the visitors a 1-0 half-time lead. Gabriel Martinelli seemed to have levelled affairs with a header just before the interval.
However, the Brazil forward’s effort was ruled out for offside following a lengthy VAR check. Enock Mwepu doubled Albion’s advantage on 66 minutes.
Martin Odegaard’s long-range deflected effort one minute from time was no more than a consolation. The result leaves the Gunners sweating on a fourth-place finish while Brighton sit 11th in the standings.
The south-coast outfit had taken one point from seven outings prior to the match. And Potter was delighted to claim the spoils, picking out three players for special praise.
“Three points in the Premier League are difficult to get and that game showed why, so it is a fantastic feeling,” he told Sky Sports. “The performance was really good and the result was even better.
“We had to be brave and use the qualities we’ve got in the team; Moises [Caicedo], Yves [Bissouma] and Enock [Mbwepu] were really important for us in terms of winning balls in the midfield.
And the 46-year-old believes getting the rub of the green plus an inspired Robert Sanchez certainly helped matters.
“We needed a bit of luck and we needed our goalkeeper to make saves. We need all these things to get results,” he added.
Brighton made to suffer
Having made such a positive start to the campaign, things have unravelled since the turn of the year. But, with 37 points in the bag, they should be safe from any thoughts of relegation.
It has not been easy for the Brighton faithful, with only 28 league goals scored to date. And Potter confessed that his charges had to dig deep to secure all three points.
“We’ve had a tough time, but we reset with a strong performance against Norwich and a really good one today,” he told BBC Sport.
“We had to hang on and suffer, but we did and the result makes it worth it. You have to be disciplined and good defensively here. Arsenal are a team who are competing for the Champions League places.
“They are top quality and we respected that; I didn’t think we could hang on for the 1-0, we had to score again. Delighted we did that, but even then, we had to suffer at the end.”
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