Bournemouth 0-2 Brighton: Roberto De Zerbi’s side returns to winning ways

Evan Ferguson’s superbly taken goal cemented the teenage striker’s growing reputation and cemented Brighton’s unexpected claims to be contenders for the top four.

The 18-year-old Republic of Ireland striker instinctively fell behind with heels midway through the first half for his eighth goal of the season.

This was by no means a smooth performance on the part of Roberto De Zerbi and they had to work hard for the points. However, by the final whistle they had tightened their grip on sixth place and moved to within four points of Tottenham, who lie fourth, with two games in hand, meaning Saturday’s meeting between the two sides at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will have an extra edge. .

De Zerbi admitted his side has chances to break into the top four if they can win again this weekend.

“We have to fight, we have to play and we have to believe,” he said. “And today the players showed me that they believe in it.”

The manager inevitably singled out Ferguson for praise, but stated to be impressed with the character displayed at his side in claiming victory.

“Evan is very young,” De Zerbi said. “His best quality is scoring and it’s a very important quality, but I think he has the potential to improve in other parts of the pitch, to play with the other players, to play more for the team.

“In my job I have to get results, but I have to help my players to get better, to make progress. But I think we can achieve our goal with Evan. And the same for the other young players.’

He added: ‘I am very pleased with the performance, the result, the quality of the game, the mentality, the character and the victory in a very difficult game. We knew before the game what difficulty we could find and that’s why I’m really excited for the players.’

The result would not have been so easy if Bournemouth had shown more composure in front of goal. Gary O’Neil’s side have dropped to the bottom three and now face a trip to fellow contenders Leicester on Saturday.

“The consequence is that if you don’t take your chances you have to push hard and you could get caught,” said the Bournemouth manager. “Their boy takes a very difficult chance, we had some good chances that we didn’t take.

“All matches are important, they all are, today felt huge. This was our sixth game in a row against teams in the top 10 and we’ve done well in every one of them. Tonight the boys will hurt, but they will recover and go back to Leicester.’

Brighton were the more composed team in a messy first half and broke through with an excellently developed opening goal in the 28th minute.

The opening was created by Lewis Dunk whose clever pass sent fullback Pervis Estupinan clear down the left flank. The Ecuador international delivered a low cross that was cleared only as far as Kaoru Mitoma, who fired another low cross into goal from a bicycle kick from Ferguson.

Bournemouth responded with Dominic Solanke twice forcing Brighton keeper Jason Steel to save. And in between all that effort, Traore was guilty of wasting his side’s best chance in the first half when his shot went wide after being sent on target by Jefferson Lerma.

Brighton held their ground in the second half as Bournemouth went in search of the equalizer, eventually dashing any hopes of a comeback as Enisco finished calmly for his first Brighton goal.