Jaouen Hadjam celebrates the win as Albion beat Sunderland (Image: Richard Parkes)
Jaouen Hadjam celebrates the win as Albion beat Sunderland (Image: Richard Parkes)
Fabian Hurzeler said Sunderland away would be a very different game to Arsenal at home.
He was very right about that.
But the points haul and the clean sheet were identical.
And, after three weeks without a game, maybe one fed into another.
Maxim De Cuyper and, very late on, Premier League debutant Jaouen Hadjam scored to secure a 2-0 win on the road.
They did so either side of a red card for Pascal Struijk, who had earlier hit the post with a header right on half-time.
Those incidents breathed life into a game which was scruffy and untidy in a biting, bitterly cold Wearside wind.
Even the best chance of the first half was the result of a mistake, as Robin Roefs came out to smother when Diego Gomez was gifted an early path to goal.
But what fed from Arsenal at the sun-kissed Amex three weeks ago to the less welcoming North East coast was that belief. That confidence.
Confidence that they would go on to win a tough battle a long way from home.
They passed a physical test, and one of concentration and organisation, especially when down to ten against an unimaginative home side.
There was a fabulous togetherness too.
The sort that can be galvanised by days and wins like this.
And let’s not forget the fact that they also stitched together the two best moves of the match to, ultimately, make the difference.
Firstly, on 52 minutes, the opening goal out of very little.
Gomez won a brave header and Pascal Gross helped the ball on for De Cuyper, away to the left.
The Belgian’s finish was caressed perfectly between Roefs and his upright for breakthrough.
That springboard was undermined when video assistant Neil Davies alerted referee Tom Bramall to a foul by Struijk on Wilson Isidor, who had been closing in on the Albion box.
A pitchside monitor review led to a red card on 57 minutes.
Bart Verbruggen saved well from the resulting free-kick, curled past the wall by Granit Xhaka, and Lewis Dunk went on at the back as Charalampos Kostoulas was withdrawn.
More changes followed and Albion were as superb in defence as the hosts were poor in possession.
There were plenty of snapshots which stuck in the mind.
Like Luka Vuskovic lying in pain after a brilliant shot-block as, at the other end, Gomez battled away to win a corner.
And all the time it also looked like they could do something on a counter-raid.
The pay-off came during seven added minutes with Gross the prompter and Georginio Ruttter committing defenders before guiding a perfectly angled pass.
Hadjam’s geometry was just as good as he took a touch and sent his own angled effort low across Roefs.
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Albion fans sang about Hurzeler taking them to Istanbul (venue for the Conference League final), about winning the league (jokingly) and about being 'flipping' brilliant (with a nod to great days under Gus Poyet).
This was another type of win for the Seagulls.
Momentum might not exist according to Hurzeler and his chairman Tony Bloom but belief does and theirs will continue to grow with wins like this.
And wins unlike this.
Albion: Verbruggen; Kadioglu, Struijk, Vuskovic, Boscagli (Yalcouye 68); Chema, Gross; Gomez (Hadjam 88), Ayari (Rutter 88), De Cuyper (Costinha 68); Kostoulas (Dunk 60). Unused subs: Steele, David, Osman, O’Riley.