Precedent favoured the Foxes in this fixture, as both sides hoped to bounce back from mid-week defeats. Leicester City had only lost once in their last ten meetings against the Seagulls, winning six of those games, and took the lead inside a minute, when Patson Daka’s low cross found its way to Kelechi Iheanacho at the back post for a tap-in. However, it didn’t take long for Brighton to respond, and inside ten minutes, Solly March got on the end of Leandro Trossard’s cross to turn the ball in off Luke Thomas for an unfortunate own goal to level the scoreline.
It only took Brighton 15 minutes to showcase Leicester’s defensive frailties again, with Enock Mwepu allowed to carry the ball over 30 yards unchallenged before slipping in Moisés Caicedo, who found the bottom corner for 2-1. Danny Ward then had his blushes spared after being robbed of the ball by Danny Welbeck, with the veteran’s attempted lob going narrowly over the bar.
Leicester responded well with an equaliser against the run of play though, as Daka went from provider to scorer, beautifully taking down Youri Tielemans’ long pass and curling the ball past Robert Sánchez to make it 2-2 at HT. Yet, far from regrouping at HT and capitalising in the second half, Brighton midfielder Alexis Mac Allister had a goal of the season contender cruelly ruled out for the tightest of offsides, after a lengthy VAR review disallowed a thunderbolt into the top corner.
See stats from the match at Flashscore
The Seagulls didn’t let this dishearten them and they took the lead shortly after, Pascal Groß’s cute pass put Trossard through on goal who made no mistake, making it 3-2. It then got even worse for the Foxes, when Wilfred Ndidi brought down Trossard in the box, Mac Allister stepped up from the spot to calmly make it 4-2. But Mac Allister wasn’t finished there, and in injury time the Argentinian scored an incredible free-kick into the top corner to cap off a remarkable performance.
The well-deserved victory keeps Brighton in the UEFA Champions League places, with a superb return of 13 points after six games. In stark contrast, Leicester remain rooted to the bottom of the table with a solitary point, suffering five straight league losses for the first time since 2017, after which Claudio Ranieri was dismissed, surely leaving Brendan Rodgers in the last-chance saloon.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton and Hove Albion)