Sheff Utd frustrate 10-man Brighton 

The Seagulls are now without a league victory in six games.

YELLOW PERIL: Brighton and Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbi is shown a yellow card. Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire.

Brighton 1 Sheff Utd 1

Brighton hit the heights on Thursday with a 2-0 win away to four-time former European Champions Ajax but had nothing left by the end of this disappointing Premier League performance.

Roberto De Zerbi’s overstretched squad took an early lead over a Sheffield United side that went into the game at the bottom of the table and without a single point on the road but their energy and inspiration drained away.

Simon Adingra put Brighton ahead after five minutes with his fourth goal of the season. Brighton played the final 20 minutes with 10 men after Mahmoud Dahoud was sent off for a challenge on Blades substitute Ben Osborn, and Adam Webster’s own goal levelled the scores after 74 minutes.

Brighton are now without a league victory in six games - their worst run under De Zerbi - and their opening run of five wins in six matches feels like a long time ago.

A second successive match without defeat may not be all that much to write home but for United a first away point of the season, following on from the previous weekend’s first win of the campaign, at home to Wolves, suddenly holds out hope that the Blades might not be dead and buried after all.

No team had ever lost ten of their first 12 games of a top flight season and gone on to avoid relegation, but having avoided that unwanted sequence they can at least have some hope of better things to come, with Bournemouth and Burnley next on their fixture list after the international break.

The Blades took advantage of a Brighton team exhausted from their away match against Ajax in the Europa League on Thursday and on an indifferent run of results.

Brighton have now won only one of the past 13 league meetings between the clubs and none of the last seven.

Jayden Bogle’s shot into the arms of Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele after 89 minutes was their first shot on target but they will not care.

It meant that Brighton equalled the Premier League record for scoring and conceding in consecutive matches, 16, set by Everton between September 2012 and January 2013. They have still not kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since a 3-0 victory away to Arsenal on May 14.

De Zerbi made six changes to the team that won in Amsterdam, three of them enforced. Evan Ferguson, who signed a new five and a half-year contract last week, was not in the squad after succumbing to a back problem - Ansu Fati made his first Premier League start - but Irish forward Mark O’Mahony, from Carrigaline, County Cork, was on the bench after a prolific scoring spell with Brighton’s under-21s.

United also have an extensive injury list. James McAtee replaced Rhian Brewster in attack but neither Anel Ahmedhodzic nor Oli McBurnie was fit to return.

United almost had a candidate for oddest goal of the season in the opening minute when Jan Paul van Hecke’s high pass across his own goal almost turned into a cross for Gustavo Hamer, whose opportunist header dropped just wide of the empty net.

But after five minutes Brighton had a candidate for the best. Adingra took possession on the left, cut inside past three defenders, got a return pass from Facundo Buonanotte and tucked a low shot past the right hand of Wes Foderingham.

Brighton had now scored in 28 consecutive Premier League games and they went in search of more. Adam Lallana sent Fati through only for Foderingham to block the Spain forward’s shot.

A second then and United might have collapsed but they recovered their composure and began to get to grips with the home midfield. Adingra helped their cause by attempting to duplicate his earlier slalom through the defence at every opportunity but with much less success. Buonanotte went close with an effort into the side-netting but had to get past a posse of defenders to find room for his shot.

United’s only moment of threat came when Hamer intercepted a loose pass from van Hecke but his through pass towards Cameron Archer was off target. Foderingham was in action again, touching a long-range effort from Billy Gilmour over the crossbar.

Not satisfied with the half-time lead, De Zerbi sent on Kaoru Mitoma and Joao Pedro, and the latter should have scored from Adingra’s pass six minutes later but scooped his shot over the bar.

But United sensed that there was still plenty in the game for them and a dangerous low cross from George Baldock meandered through the Brighton defence with no teammate able to take advantage.

At the other end Foderingham saved at his near post from Mitoma and then pawed aside a powerfully-struck shot from Mahmoud Dahoud, but United were getting into the game.

And they were handed the initiative when Dahoud was shown a red card after 69 minutes when his studs scraped the back of Ben Osborn’s calf. It was the fourth red shown by referee John Brooks, the most in the Premier League this season.

Suddenly Brighton’s composure was gone. United were on the front foot and they were level five minutes later when Jayden Bogle’s driven cross was turned into his own net by Webster. And they could have been ahead but Bogle put his angled shot past the post.

Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2-3–1): J Steele 6; P Gross 6, A Webster 5, JP van Hecke 8, I Julio 7; M Dahoud 6, B Gilmour 7 (C Baleba 71); F Buonanotte 6 (K Mitoma 46, 6), A Lallana 5 (Joao Pedro 46, 7), S Adingra 6; A Fati 6 (J Veltman 71).

Not used: B Verbruggen, J Moder, J Hinshelwood, B Baker-Boaitey, M O’Mahony.

Booked: Buonanotte, Baleba. Sent off: Dahoud.

Sheffield United (3-4-1-2): W Foderingham 7; G Baldock 7, A Trusty 7, J Robinson 7; J Bogle 6 (W Osula 90+4), V de Souza 5 (Osborn 52, 6), O Norwood 7, L Thomas 6; G Hamer 6; J McAtee 5 (A B Slimane 86), C Archer 5.

Not used: J Amissah, M Lowe, J Fleck, B Traore, Y Larouci, W Osula, A Brooks.

Booked: Bogle, Thomas, Robinson.

Referee: John Brooks 6.