Brighton 1-1 Burnley Analysis: Did benching Mitoma impact the result?

The early stages of the game showed Burnley being the aggressors, attacking and maintaining a consistent attack against the Albion for the first 10 minutes of the game. Burnley had a great first half against a cagey Brighton team, who found it hard to get a foothold in the game.

Brighton enjoyed a flurry of promising spells coming to the end of the first half, but were unable to capitalise. It proved to bite back at them, with Burnley snatching a goal in the 45th minute.

Brighton and Hove Albion made a number of changes at the start of the second half, with Mitoma and Gilmour coming on Dahoud off for Gilmour and Lallana off for Mitoma. The Japanese midfielder made an impact immediately when he came on, gliding past defenders and whipping in a cross in the 46th minute of the second half, that was met by the keeper.

The Japanese international was nothing short of superb. De Zerbi was even seen whistling to his players and pointing to get them to pass the ball to the silky-skilled player. With the fact that Mitoma didn’t play the whole game and Brighton struggled in the first half, the game could’ve be a lot different at the first half whistle. The winger seemingly transformed Brightons mentality in the second half

De Zerbi commented on the players fitness, saying: “Mitoma was not available to play 90 minutes… Mitoma was a risk.”