Brighton brilliant as Evan Ferguson’s hat-trick stuns shaky Newcastle

Three goals for Evan Ferguson – and three straight league defeats for Eddie Howe. While the 18-year-old gave further evidence of his remarkable talent, his ability has never really been in doubt, perhaps since he made his debut at 14 for Bohemians but certainly since he scored against Arsenal and Everton in successive games around the turn of the year. More significant may be this run of poor form for Howe. For the first time, we will see how the Saudi project responds to disappointment.

Howe, understandably, remains popular among fans and the work he did last season to drive Newcastle into the top four should not be downplayed or quickly forgotten. There is no sense of immediate pressure but for the first time at Newcastle, tactical questions are beginning to be asked.

Nonetheless, these are heady times for both sides. In a week when the Europa League draw grouped Brighton with Ajax, Marseille and AEK Athens they presented before kick-off their two most recent signings, Ansu Fati (on loan) from Barcelona and Carlos Baleba from Lille.

It still requires a mental adjustment to take seriously. Newcastle, similarly, were given a thrilling reminder of their new status by a Champions League draw that set up fixtures against Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Milan.

But in all the glamour there are matches to be played and won, and both sides, after promising starts to the season, failed to do that last week. Nobody at Newcastle would be panicking after defeats by Manchester City and Liverpool, although in both games there was a seeming lack of conviction. Meanwhile Brighton, having beaten Luton and Wolves in extremely open games, came undone last week against an opponent in West Ham who defended well and took their chances.

To an extent, that is a risk any side playing Roberto De Zerbi’s style of football takes, but the manager evidently saw a specific problem on the channel between James Milner and Adam Webster that West Ham targeted, preferring Joël Veltman and Jan Paul van Hecke on the right side of defence. Van Hecke made an immediate contribution, checking Alexander Isak after he had been set through by Bruno Guimarães in the first minute.

Isak miskicked when well-placed and Bart Verbruggen reacted sharply to keep out a deflected Miguel Almirón cross but the longer the first half went on the more vulnerable Newcastle looked at the back of midfield and the more the flow of chances began to go Brighton’s way, culminating in them taking a 27th-minute lead, a goal that resulted from at least two and possibly three Newcastle mistakes.

First, Nick Pope gifted possession to Pervis Estupiñan and then, after Pope had blocked the Kaoru Mitoma effort that resulted, Sandro Tonali wagged an ineffectual foot at the dropping ball. Billy Gilmour’s drive was fierce but Pope probably should have done better than to spill it at the feet of Ferguson, who turned in his second goal of the season.

Although Newcastle were effective in disrupting Brighton’s preferred route out from defence, from centre-back to Gilmour, once the home side was able to advance, João Pedro often had space, perhaps indicating an issue in the make-up of the Newcastle midfield.

Guimarães, fine ball-player that he is, is not a natural destroyer and, while Joelinton and Sean Longstaff were able to fulfil that function last season, the introduction of Tonali, for all his attacking qualities, may have disrupted the balance. The withdrawal of Tonali and Joelinton for Longstaff and Elliot Anderson just before the hour was an acknowledgment by Howe of that and there was an almost immediate shift in the dynamic.

But that hole at the back of midfield remained and it was through this space that Brighton got their second. There was an element of fortune in the buildup as Van Hecke almost lost control, drawing Newcastle on, but once he had squirted the ball to Gilmour, it was all too easy, as he found Ferguson who turned an, with a remarkable sense of unflustered inevitability, sidefooted the ball into the bottom corner from almost 30 yards. The goal that completed his first hat-trick lacked the same aesthetic quality, taking a big deflection off Fabian Schär. Callum Wilson’s injury-time goal changed nothing.

Ferguson’s excellence means Brighton can write off last week’s defeat as a blip; Newcastle have no such resort.