Brighton 5-0 Crystal Palace: Gomez stunner headlines five-star rout

Brighton secured their fourth straight Premier League win with a dominant 5-0 thrashing of rivals Crystal Palace at the Amex Stadium, where Diego Gomez scored a screamer.

Fabian Hurzeler's side wasted little time asserting their dominance in the pouring rain, taking the lead inside four minutes as Jaydee Canvot inadvertently diverted Pascal Gross' low, near-post cross into his own net.

Matters quickly unravelled further for Palace as Gomez produced a moment of brilliance less than three minutes later. Spotting Walter Benitez stranded off his line, the midfielder fired off a spectacular piledriver from the halfway line that soared into the net.

Yasin Ayari piled more misery on Palace in the 10th minute as he was picked out keenly by Charalampos Kostoulas' exquisite backheel before bundling home a low effort off Canvot's legs.

Any hopes of a Palace fightback were swiftly extinguished as Brighton struck again after the interval, with Kostoulas reacting quickest to a fortunate deflection off Ayari's effort to slide home from point-blank range.

Palace spurned two golden opportunities to reduce the deficit in the second half, with Jean-Philippe Mateta crashing an unchallenged effort against the crossbar, while Jefferson Lerma could only flick Adam Wharton's cross onto the outside of the post.

Brighton had the final say as Luka Vuskovic calmly nodded a deep cross back into the danger area, allowing Jack Hinshelwood to poke past Benitez from a yard out and complete the rout.

Gomez finds his range in Brighton blitz

The Seagulls had come into Sunday's clash in fantastic form, but even Hurzeler must have been surprised by just how quickly his team asserted their dominance.

Brighton raced into a three-goal lead after nine minutes and 30 seconds – the earliest any Premier League side has scored three since Newcastle United put three past Tottenham inside eight minutes and 12 seconds in April 2023.

Indeed, Brighton became just the ninth side in Premier League history to score three goals inside the opening 10 minutes of a match, and the first since Newcastle against Tottenham.

Gomez, meanwhile, will deservedly grab all headlines for his stunning effort from the halfway line.

The Paraguay international found the net from 51.3 metres out, the longest-range Premier League goal since Wayne Rooney scored from 57.7 metres for Everton against West Ham in November 2017.

Brighton's attacking prowess has been evident throughout the season, with only three teams in Premier League history scoring more goals in their opening seven matches than the Seagulls' 23 this season: Arsenal in 2009-10 (24), Manchester United in 2011-12 (24) and Manchester City in 2019-20 (27).

The Seagulls have now won four consecutive league matches by an aggregate score of 15-0, while they comfortably outperformed their 1.98 expected goals (xG) against Palace, who generated just 0.75 xG in response.