‘We play with courage’

ROBERTO DE ZERBI claimed that Brighton’s latest victory over Manchester United was ‘no surprise’ as his team celebrated a fourth straight win in Premier League meetings between the two clubs. Brighton moved into fourth place in the table after ending United’s 31-game unbeaten run at Old Trafford, and De Zerbi insisted that they could have scored even more goals in a 3-1 win after Andre Onana pulled off a point-blank save from Ansu Fati in injury time. Asked how a club with Brighton’s limited budget can keep beating United, De Zerbi said: ‘Football is nice because the small team can win in every moment. I think Brighton is becoming not a big team, but it is not a surprise. ‘The quality of the players and organisation of Brighton is very high. I don’t know the problems of Manchester United, but I can explain my team. We are used to working in our style, we are playing with courage, we defended at Old Trafford man-to-man all the time and we kept the ball in every situation. ‘In the first half, we suffered a lot with the pressure, but after that we played a great game.’ Another sign of Brighton’s progress will be the club’s first ever appearance in Europe when they face AEK Athens in the Europa League on Thursday.