Brighton 2-1 Nottingham Forest, English Premier League: Gomez, Welbeck Punish Struggling Visitors

Diego Gomez and Danny Welbeck scored the goals as Brighton piled more misery on struggling Nottingham Forest with a 2-1 victory at the Amex Stadium.

The duo were on target either side of a brilliant Morgan Gibbs-White equaliser, in a barnstorming opening 15 minutes to the game on Sunday.

Gomez executed a sublime half-volley from a tight angle on the right of the box in the sixth minute, only for Gibbs-White to respond in kind with a 25-yard effort that bent away from Bart Verbruggen.

Brighton restored the lead in the 15th minute when Josh Hinshelwood knocked down Kaoru Mitoma's cross in the path of Welbeck, who smashed home from close range.

Mitoma was denied by Matz Sels after fine work with Welbeck, and the Forest goalkeeper also denied Hinshelwood's diving header.

Gibbs-White and Forest substitute Taiwo Awoniyi missed presentable headers in the pick of the second-half chances, but Brighton were good value for the three points and Forest remain just two points above the drop zone.

Data Debrief: Brighton trio do the damage

Brighton's success was built off the first-half fluidity between Gomez, Mitoma, and Welbeck, who were a constant torment to Forest's defence.

Gomez is now the third Paraguayan player to net five-plus goals in a Premier League campaign, after Roque Santa Cruz in 2007-08 for Blackburn Rovers (19) and Miguel Almiron in 2022-23 for Newcastle United (11).

Welbeck is also showing no signs of slowing down at the age of 35. He is now just the eighth player in Premier League history to have scored 10-plus goals in consecutive seasons while aged 33 or older, most recently Jamie Vardy in 2020-21 and 2021-22 (15 in each).

It was another day to forget for Forest, who have lost 15 of their 28 Premier League games so far this season, only twice suffering more at this stage of a league campaign this century (18 in 2011-12 in the Championship and 16 in 2023-24 in the Premier League).  

They have failed to win any of their four away Premier League games against Brighton (D2 L2), only ever facing Arsenal (nine) and Manchester City (six) more often on the road in the competition without success.