Brighton beat Sunderland 2-0 at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, extending their strong start to the Premier League season even after Pascal Struijk was sent off in the second half.
Maxim De Cuyper opened the scoring from a Pascal Gross assist before Brighton were reduced to 10 men following Struijk’s red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. Jaouen Hadjam then sealed the result late on, prompting a partial emptying of the ground as Sunderland fell to a fourth-point total and remained with only one league win this season.
The result kept Fabian Hürzeler’s side in third place with 13 points. It also followed Brighton’s 3-0 win over Arsenal before the international break, underlining a run of form that has made them difficult to underestimate.
For Sunderland, the defeat came in a match that also highlighted a difficult spell around the club’s wider setup. The Guardian reported that owner and chair Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has also added the title of chief executive after Tom Burwell left the role of interim CEO, and that the club is still seeking a front-of-shirt sponsor after a proposed deal with Visit Ghana fell through.