Brighton and Hove Albion kicked off their second season in the Premier League with a 2-0 defeat to Watford

On the day many Watford fans saw their first glimpse of the statue of former manager Graham Taylor outside the ground, their side looked they were playing against statues at times during the game. 

The Seagulls lacked pace, desire, and belief that they could win the game. Whereas, Watford were energetic and looked like they wanted to win the game.

Watford dominated the possession and could have been gone ahead a couple of times in the opening minutes if Mathew Ryan had not been there to save Brighton. 

Albion then lost their captain Bruno to a hamstring injury just 25 minutes in. 

Ten minutes later as well as a substitute down Brighton were a goal down when a corner was played short to Jose Holebas, who pinged a ball to Roberto Pereyra on the edge of the box whose volley could only be palmed into the top left corner. 

The second half continued the same way as the first with Watford dominating the ball and twelve minutes into the half it was 2-0.

This time Holebas ran into Bernardo and Anthony Knockaert and the ball ran to Pererya on the left edge of the box, he then advanced into the box unchallenged and curled an effort into the top right corner. 

Seagulls looked all out of sorts

Brighton struggled to get results away last season and they will certainly struggle with any results if they play the way they did today. For the majority of the game, until manager Chris Hughton made changes, they looked off the pace.

Last season's key players struggled. Jose Izquierdo was not even the squad due to a muscle injury that he is recovering from and Brighton missed him. Pascal Gross was non-existent and looked out of sorts. Knockaert was wasteful and did not know what to do.

Last season's top scorer Glenn Murray had no support when he held up the ball and looked helpless until new signing Yves Bissouma came on to the pitch and tried to change the game. 

Bissouma and Alireza Jahanbakhsh looked lively

With twenty minutes left new signings Bissouma and club-record signing, Jahanbakhsh graced the Premier League for the first time.

They certainly excelled, both Bissouma and Jahanbakhsh added a liveliness and desire to come on and change things and staked a claim to start against Manchester United next weekend. 

Bissouma closed down the Watford defense and made things happened, as well as linking up well with Murray.

He also had the best chance of the game for Albion, when with about eight minutes left he danced past three players and into the box, before unleashing an effort which went just wide of the left post. 

Jahanbakhsh made a darting run down the right wing straight after coming on and nearly set up Bissouma. He looked very lively and comfortable on the ball, which Brighton could have used earlier in the game. 

Overall, some hard work needs to be done off the pitch before next week's opening home game of the season against United at The Amex.

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About the author
Adam Stenning
University Sports Journalism student, who has a real passion for sport especially Football. Am a huge Brighton and Hove Albion fan and season ticket holder there for the last eight years.