Staff Reporter.
Brighton boosted their Premier League survival hopes as Neal Maupay’s winner against a lacklustre Leeds United ended a run of nine league games without a victory.
Maupay tapped in after 17 minutes following slick build-up from Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard.”Everything worked well today, we defended together and attacked pretty well. It’s a huge result for us,” Maupay said after Brighton’s third victory in 19 games this season. “We have quality, but we need to push on and get more wins.”
Brighton hit the bar through Trossard’s deflected cross shortly after, while the Belgian fired over another good chance in the second half.
Leeds created little throughout and managed just two efforts on target.
The victory moved Brighton up to 16th in the table on 17 points, while Leeds stay 12th on 23 after their ninth league defeat of the season.
Meanwhile Michail Antonio gave a reminder of his worth to West Ham by scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Burnley.
In line with COVID-19 guidelines Antonio opted for a solo celebration of his 40th Premier League goal for the club — laying on his back and motioning as if swimming backstroke.
“I had a game of Call of Duty with Declan Rice and lost and that was the forfeit,” Antonio said.
West Ham have 29 points from 18 games while Burnley, who have yet to reach double figures in goals scored this season, are looking anxiously over their shoulders in 17th place.
“Not our best performance but another resilient one,” manager David Moyes said.