Diego Gomez scores twice as Brighton breeze past Leeds

Danny Welbeck opened the scoring early for the Seagulls.

Diego Gomez scored twice for Brighton. Picture: Steven Paston/PA

Premier League: Brighton 3 (Wellbeck 11, Gomez 64, 70) Leeds Utd 0

Diego Gomez scored his first Premier League goals of the season as Brighton romped to a 3-0 win over a desperately poor Leeds at the Amex Stadium.

The home side were at their dynamic, free-flowing best and showed no mercy once Daniel Farke’s team began to fall apart midway through the second half, though even before that Leeds had offered next to nothing.

It was a miserable away performance throughout which laid bare the problems this team has scoring goals on the road with just three all season.

Danny Welbeck opened the scoring early, the visitors held the score at 1-0 for almost an hour then capitulated in the space of seven minutes, Gomez twice showing perfect timing in the box to put Leeds to the sword.

Yankuba Minteh was Brighton’s best player in the first half, an expert study in ball control and forceful penetration, while Welbeck continued his late-career renaissance with his sixth of the season.

It was, by contrast, difficult to pick out a contribution from Leeds, who spent 25 minutes struggling to win the ball before finding they had few ideas what to do with it. Striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin cut a lonely figure labouring in isolation in the Brighton half.

At the other end too they looked unsure of themselves. Early on, Ethan Ampadu gave the ball away in midfield, Yasin Ayari drove at goal but gave Lucas Perri an easy save.

The opener arrived on 11 minutes. Minteh clipped the ball wide into the path of Mats Wieffer, Perri made the calamitous decision to come out to meet the Brighton full-back, leaving his goal unguarded for Welbeck to finish into the empty net.

In a moment of brief Leeds promise, Jayden Bogle zipped the ball low across the face of goal but a yard ahead of Calvert-Lewin who was unable to make up the ground. Sean Longstaff then sent a free-kick high enough over the bar to have cleared two goal-frames, neatly summing up a virtually non-existent first-half attacking threat.

Brighton were chipping away in search of a second. A wonderful tackle from Jan Paul van Hecke to win the ball deep in the Leeds half set up Welbeck for an effort from range. Such is the striker’s form that it came as a surprise when his 20-yard curler whistled the wrong side of the post.

Minteh came within inches of a deserved Brighton second, firing inches wide after a wonderful run which left Jaka Bijol tackling at thin air.

All three of Leeds’ away goals in the league came in a 14-minute spell against bottom side Wolves in September, and here again they were painfully short of ideas.

They offered more of the same in the second half. Predictably then it was Brighton that scored the next goal and it was no surprise that Minteh made it. The former Feyenoord winger took possession on the right, stood up Gabriel Gudmundsson then skipped impudently beyond him and crossed to where Gomez was arriving to open his Premier League account.

Georginio Rutter set up Gomez for his second minutes afterwards, barrelling past Bogle and putting it on a plate for the Paraguay international.

Brighton: Verbruggen, Wieffer, van Hecke, Dunk, Kadioglu, Baleba, Ayari, Minteh, Rutter, Gomez, Welbeck. 

Subs: Steele, Tzimas, Watson, Kostoulas, Boscagli, De Cuyper, Coppola, Knight, Oriola.

Leeds: Lucas Perri, Bogle, Rodon, Bijol, Gudmundsson, Ampadu, Aaronson, Longstaff, Tanaka, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin. 

Subs: Darlow, Struijk, James, Piroe, Nmecha, Stach, Harrison, Justin, Gruev.

Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)