Isak applies finishing touch as Liverpool bring Brighton’s winning run to an end

Brighton’s emphatic run was blown off course at Anfield as Liverpool moved up to fourth with an appetite and urgency at both ends of the pitch that showed Andoni Iraola’s methods taking root. It is Liverpool, convincing winners on home soil for the first time this season in the Premier League, who looked upwardly mobile.

Florian Wirtz was instrumental in an opening goal officially credited to Brighton’s Pascal Gross and Alexander Isak converted his sixth league goal of the campaign to shatter the visitors’ sequence of four successive Premier League wins. Brighton’s winning streak had included 15 goals and none against but there was neither attacking verve nor defensive resilience on show from Fabian Hürzeler’s side. Liverpool had a monopoly on both, and the sight of Bradley Barcola racing back to defend and Ronald Araújo thundering into challenges will have satisified Iraola just as much as the incisiveness up front.

Related: Manchester United 0-3 Bournemouth, Liverpool 2-0 Brighton and more: clockwatch – live

Storm Boelo raged outside the stadium but inside it was relatively calm, vindicating the decision to proceed with the game. But not for Brighton. The run of wins and clean sheets that had swept Hurzeler’s team into third place before kick off was devastated by Liverpool’s attacking force. The home side’s superior first half performance was another demonstration of the expensive trio of Wirtz, Isak and Barcola feeling increasingly at home under Iraola.

Liverpool were aggressive and sharp from the start, in contrast to their opening against Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday, and opened the scoring just as Brighton were beginning to exert their first serious spell of pressure.

There was an element of good fortune about the breakthrough but it also encapsulated the differing intensity between the teams when Wirtz held off Lewis Dunk and Araújo beat both the Brighton captain and Oliver Boscagli to the loose ball. His low cross pin-balled off two Brighton players before rebounding to Wirtz, whose first time shot deceived Bart Verbruggen via another deflection off Gross. Wirtz’s low key celebration hinted at what was to come. It was not his first league goal of the campaign and second goal in successive games after all. The breakthrough was officially credited as an own goal from the Brighton midfielder.

It should also have been a Liverpool equaliser rather than the opener as Yasin Ayari had a glorious chance to give Brighton the lead moments earlier. Diego Gómez and Gross combined to pierce Liverpool’s left flank and present Ayari with a free sight of goal with Alisson dragged across to his left. The Brighton forward blazed high into the Kop and would soon have added reason to rue the miscue.

Liverpool quickly doubled their lead when capitalising on more casual Brighton defending. Boscagli was again found wanting when attempting to deal with Alisson’s clearance deep into the visitors’ half. The left-back struck a clearance straight at Barcola and was then left floundering as the France international, deployed on the right, brushed aside his efforts to recover possession. Isak steered Barcola’s delivery inside the far corner with a deft, side-foot finish to score in three consecutive league games for the first time since January 2025. It was Liverpool’s first goal scored by a Liverpool player in the first half of a Premier League game at Anfield this season. There was no surprise whatsoever when Boscagli was withdrawn at half-time.

Brighton attacked with greater conviction than they defended but with Araújo, Jérémy Jacquet and Virgil van Dijk all making telling interventions, and receiving impressive support from all quarters, Alisson was not seriously tested. The visitors’ best hope of a recovery stemmed from the Liverpool keeper’s own risky pass to Alexis Mac Allister, which gifted possession back to Brighton and resulted in Ayari striking a post from 20 yards out.

Jack Hinshelwood, Boscagli’s replacement, and fellow substitute Malick Yalcouyé injected more energy and bite into Brighton’s second half display but an end product from the visitors remained lacking. Too many overhit crosses and poor final balls enabled Liverpool to protect their lead in comfort.