In the early hours of Friday morning (19th), Newcastle beat Brighton 4-1 at home in the Premier League, and are now 4 points ahead of 5th place Liverpool, in other words, as long as they win one more of their remaining 2 league matches, they will be able to secure a UEFA Europa League ticket again after 20 years.
In a bye match that could have been a six-pointer between the two sides for a place in the top four of the Premier League, Brighton fell behind when midfielder Anders Andersen scored a 22nd-minute equalizer. According to OPTA statistics, Brighton have scored six goals in the Premier League this season, which is the third most in a single season in the history of the Premier League, behind only Lister City in the 2003/04 season (8 goals) and Southampton in the 2004/05 season (7 goals). Newcastle made it 2-0 in the first half with a goal by Dan Bon Bon in the extra time.
After the change of sides, Andaffe made up for his mistake by scoring a goal for Brighton, but conceded 2 goals before the end, and Newcastle got a goal each from Colin Wilson and Bono Gumarez to finish the game with a 4-1 win. It is worth mentioning that Newcastle has scored 4 or more goals in 8 EPL matches this season, which is equal to the total number of matches in which the team scored 4+ goals in the past 10 seasons in the top league.
