Fulham 3-1 Brighton: Alex Iwobi nets brace to fire Marco Silva’s side up to sixth in the Premier League… just a point behind fifth-placed Seagulls

His first goal was an early Christmas present handed on a plate by Bart Verbruggen but Alex Iwobi’s second was a strike of high quality that capped off a fine man-of-the-match display, which helped take Fulham up to sixth in the Premier League, a point behind Brighton.

Already Iwobi has surpassed his tally of goal involvements from last season, with his brace here making it five goals and three assists for the campaign.

‘It’s his best season in the Premier League so far. I took him to Everton and I didn’t hesitate for one second when I felt I had the chance to work with him again,’ said Fulham boss Marco Silva. ‘From the first day of pre-season, I felt he would make a big difference. He’s a versatile player who is taking responsibility and scoring much more. What a player he is for us,’ Silva added.

Iwobi’s former club Arsenal will make the trip across the capital on Sunday to face a Fulham side that is growing in confidence, even though Silva refused to get carried away by looking at the table. ‘We are pleased but we know our reality, he said. ‘For as long as we have the capacity, we will push ourselves.’

In the relentless rain in west London, here were two sides with clear identities and it made for an enthralling watch. Silva made three changes while for Brighton, there were four with Danny Welbeck missing out due to an injury which Fabian Hurzeler described as a ‘small issue’.

Hurzeler was serving a one-match touchline ban for picking up his third yellow card of the season against Southampton and spoke pre-match about ‘looking forward to the experience’ of coaching from the stands, saying it was his first time doing so.

The midfielder opened the scoring after an error and wrapped up the three points late on

Andreas Pereira (second left) went a little way to making amends for his off-field issues at Fulham

Over the course of 90 minutes sitting high up in the new Riverside stand with Airpods in his ears, the 31-year-old’s opinions changed.

‘It’s not the best feeling to watch from the stands,’ Hurzeler said after. ‘We all know that’s not the result we deserve. We created the best chances and conceded from our mistakes.’

It was Brighton who started on the front foot but inexplicably, Verbruggen passed it straight to Iwobi when he was trying to find Baleba in his own box, with the Fulham midfielder taking a couple of touches and passing it into an empty net.

In the 35th minute, Brighton should have levelled. Kaoru Mitoma fired a wonderful ball across the box, which Matt O’Riley let run but Simon Adingra hit it straight at Leno from six yards out. 

For all their dominance in possession, Brighton lacked that killer edge and the absence of Welbeck, their top scorer this season, was increasingly looking costly.

Just like the first half, Brighton started the second with more of the ball and they deservedly drew level through a moment of briliance from Carlos Baleba. 

Jan Paul van Hecke’s lofted delivery found Pedro, whose flick put the ball into the path of Baleba and the 20-year-old delightfully drilled it first-time from outside the box with his left-foot into the bottom corner.

Both managers made changes in a hunt for a winner and ultimately against the run of play, it was Andreas Pereira, who came on for Emile Smith Rowe, that made the difference.

Carlos Baleba (right) had brought Brighton level but they failed to kick on in the second half

Matt O’Riley put the ball into his own net to put Fulham back ahead and they didn’t look back

Fabian Hurzeler saw his side fail to capitalise on the chance to go back into the top four

Pereira was hardly in Fulham’s good books after giving an interview to a Brazilian media outlet last week where he said it was ‘unfortunate’ that a move to Marseille broke down in the summer. 

In response, Silva left him out of the squad on the weekend but the Brazilian went a little way to making amends when his dangerous corner in the 79th minute hit the back of O’Riley and went into the net. The cameras panned to a straight-faced and helpless Hurzeler. 

For all their positivity, his side have made six errors leading to goals in the Premier League this season – only Southampton have made more. And with minutes to go, Iwobi put the icing on the cake, receiving the ball from Robinson, spinning and curling the ball into the bottom corner.