Brighton boss makes sensational Newcastle United claim amid Man United & Liverpool battle

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbi showed his class after his side’s 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United.

Eddie Howe’s men moved to within three points of sealing Champions League qualification after winning their game in-hand over fifth-place Liverpool.

An own goal by Deniz Undav opened the scoring for United before Dan Burn - against his former club - double the lead on the brink of half-time.

Undav pulled one back for the Seagulls but goals from Callum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes in the closing stages recorded a big victory.

Newcastle require just one win from their remaining two Premier League games against Leicester City and Chelsea to record a top four finish.

And Albion boss De Zerbi fully deserve to end their 20-year absence from Europe’s most elite competition, which, if happens, will come at the expense of Liverpool or Manchester United.

“Newcastle deserve to qualify for the Champions League,” said the Italian.. They won against Man United 2-0 and they deserved to win and in the first half with Arsenal they were unlucky.

“They are a strong team, a very good team. Difficult for us, especially today because we weren’t with many powerful players with energy.”

On the game, De Zebri added: “We deserved to lose the game. I don’t want to make any excuses. I think we play not good in the first half and deserved to lose the game. We concede two goals in two set-pieces but we didn’t play well.

“We know we stay in not the best condition, we have a lot of injuries, but we have the possibility to win on Sunday and before the game [against Newcastle we knew] it was a very tough game.”

Brighton ended Arsenal’s title hopes with a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. De Zebri’s side require two wins from three to guarantee a top six finish, i.e Europa League football.

He added: “This condition for us to play many games in a few days and we are stronger and prepare for the next game. We suffer the physicality of Newcastle. There were many players who didn’t play in the last period.

“We knew before the game that it was difficult and we have to forget this day and prepare for the next game. It is a very important game in our stadium with our fans and we have to forget.”

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