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Diego Gomez took one touch, looked up, and hit it from 51 metres. By the time the ball dropped over the stranded Walter Benitez and into the Crystal Palace net, Brighton were two goals up inside seven minutes at the Amex Stadium — and on their way to a 5-0 destruction of their fiercest rivals.
Sunday’s M23 derby was effectively finished before the quarter-hour. Jaydee Canvot turned the ball into his own net in the fourth minute, Gomez produced the goal of the Premier League season so far in the seventh, and Yasin Ayari made it three in the 10th. Charalampos Kostoulas added a fourth shortly after the restart and Jack Hinshelwood completed the rout with six minutes left.
Fifty-one metres, and a goalkeeper caught out
Gomez’s strike was the product of an instant read rather than a hopeful swing. Brighton won the ball back high, Oliver Boscagli slid it into the Paraguayan just inside the Palace half, and Gomez — who had already clocked Benitez pushed up toward the edge of his area — took a single touch to set himself before lofting the ball over the goalkeeper’s head.
Measured at 51.3 metres, it is the eighth longest-range goal scored in the Premier League since detailed distance records began in 2006-07, and the furthest in nearly a decade: the last to beat it was Wayne Rooney’s 58-metre effort for Everton against West Ham United in November 2017. It was also Gomez’s first goal of the season — a timely one for a 23-year-old who arrived from Inter Miami in a deal worth around $15m, one of the largest outbound transfers in MLS history, and who signed a new five-year contract on the south coast.
The wider pattern was just as striking. Brighton became only the ninth side in Premier League history to score three times in the opening 10 minutes of a match, and the first since Newcastle United did it to Tottenham in April 2023.
A hoodoo ended, and a record-breaking start
For Fabian Hurzeler, the scoreline carried personal weight. The German had faced Palace four times as Brighton head coach without a win — one draw, three defeats — while Palace arrived unbeaten in their previous four meetings with the Seagulls. This was Hurzeler’s fifth attempt, and it produced Brighton’s biggest-ever victory over Palace, matching a 5-0 win from 1956.
“A few months ago we were in a different place and I said I’d keep pushing to get another opportunity to beat them, so I’m happy we did it today,” Hurzeler said. He was quick to temper the celebration: “We have to stay humble and understand why we are where we are at the moment.”
Where they are is the most productive position in the club’s history at this point of a season. Brighton have scored 23 league goals in seven matches — their most ever at this stage of a campaign across the top four tiers of English football — and only Barcelona have outscored them in Europe’s five biggest leagues. A fourth consecutive league win moved them to 16 points, five behind leaders Manchester City.
Hurzeler’s instruction to his players afterwards was to ignore all of it. “They shouldn’t look at the table,” he said. “They should enjoy the night today without a mobile phone, enjoy a beer or something else.”
Palace’s slide deepens before Brighton face Liverpool
For Palace, this was a collapse rather than a bad afternoon. They managed five shots across 90 minutes, their lowest total in a Premier League game this season, and barely tested Brighton after the opening salvo. Pierre Sage’s side sit 14th with seven points from seven matches and have conceded 17 league goals — their worst defensive record at this stage of a season since 1980-81.
Sage took the blame directly. “I don’t create the conditions for the players to start well. The first work is on me,” he said, admitting he did not know “what happened today” and apologising to the travelling supporters. Adam Wharton was blunter: the performance was “nowhere near good enough from any of us from the start to the end.”
The schedule offers Palace a week to regroup. Brighton get no such pause: Jablonec visit in the Conference League on Thursday before a trip to Liverpool next weekend — the first genuine test of whether a side scoring at a record rate can do it against the division’s elite rather than a rival in freefall.
- Brighton: 4′ Canvot (og), 7′ Gomez, 10′ Ayari, 48′ Kostoulas, 84′ Hinshelwood
- Gomez’s goal: 51.3m — furthest Premier League goal since Rooney’s 58m in November 2017
- League standing: Brighton 16 pts from 7; Palace 14th on 7 pts
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**Word count:** ~735 words of body prose.
A note on verification: I checked the story before writing, and the core facts hold up — Brighton did beat Palace 5-0 at the Amex today, and Gomez’s halfway-line goal was measured at 51.3m. One discrepancy worth flagging: one source listed Gomez with two goals, but every scorer breakdown (including Sky’s) attributes him one, with the other four to Canvot (og), Ayari, Kostoulas and Hinshelwood — I went with the latter. I also avoided stating Brighton’s exact league position, since reports had them “provisionally second” at full time while the completed table showed third; the points figures are the safer framing.
Sources: [Sky Sports report](https://www.skysports.com/football/brighton-vs-c-palace/report/559506), [The Analyst](https://theanalyst.com/articles/brighton-vs-crystal-palace-stats-premier-league-10-2026), [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50211094/fabian-hurzeler-brighton-crystal-palace-diego-gomez-premier-league), [beIN Sports](https://www.beinsports.com/en-us/soccer/premier-league/articles/hurzeler-urges-brighton-to-stay-humble-after-emphatic-win-over-palace-2026-10-18), [Goal](https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/diego-gomez-halfway-line-goal-brighton-crystal-palace-premier-league/bltb91fe8d080622c5e), [ESPN on the Inter Miami transfer](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/42895512/inter-miami-transfer-diego-gomez-brighton-sets-mls-mark)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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