Chris Hughton Says Swansea Played Into Brighton's Hands After Seagulls Run Riot at AMEX

Chris Hughton suggested that Swansea's change of formation during their game against Brighton was a miscalculation, as his Seagulls team stormed to a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

Brighton were leading 1-0 when Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal replaced Nathan Dyer with Andre Ayew, and the Portuguese manager made further tactical alterations at half-time. This backfired spectacularly as Brighton scored three second half goals, while Swansea's only consolation came from an own goal.

Hughton admitted that, although his own team were brilliant, they profited from Carvalhal's error of judgement.

“I thought it was a really good performance," the Brighton boss told the club's official website. "The game certainly opened up in that second-half period, and because of the fact we took the lead, they decided to change [shape], which made it an open game.

“When that happens, one side generally benefits from it and I think we benefitted from it more than they did."

Hughton was particularly pleased with Brighton's attacking joie de vivre. Only Swansea and West Brom had scored fewer Premier League goals than the Seagulls coming into this weekend's matches, but that was hard to believe as Brighton played with real attacking flair at times.

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“Offensively, we certainly came onto a decent game," said Hughton. "Probably for a side who didn’t look like scoring too many goals, that has changed in recent weeks.

“That always has to come on the back of a good team performance - but if you ask the back four and goalkeeper, their disappointment would be that we didn’t keep a clean sheet."

Brighton are now four points clear of the relegation zone, but will be aware that they cannot afford to be complacent. Their next match is at home to Arsenal next Sunday.