ALEX CROOK: “Brighton are the Barcelona of the Premier League!”

Star Sports football ambassador ALEX CROOK is back with his weekend takeaways from the weekend just gone of Premier League action…

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🇪🇸 BRIGHTON ARE THE BARCELONA OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE

What a time to be a Brighton fan.

The Seagulls are riding high in third place in the table and Barcelona are the only team in Europe’s top five major European leagues to outscore the sensational Seagulls.

They have also only conceded five league goals – four of them in one game against Chelsea!

Diego Gomez’s strike from the halfway line against Palace has probably already sealed the goal of the season race.

If they can maintain this level of form and scoring prowess, we might soon have to start talking seriously about Fabian Hurzeler’s men being genuine title contenders.

BRIGHTON TO FINISH IN THE TOP-FOUR – currently at ? with starsports.bet

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🦅 HIRING PIERRE NOT LOOKING SAGE ADVICE FOR PALACE

We are at the stage of the season where chairmen start to get itchy trigger fingers.

Michael Carrick is the favourite to be the first managerial casualty of the season, but this feels like a pivotal week for Crystal Palace’s Pierre Sage.

The Frenchman had to apologise to fans after Sunday’s 5-0 demolition at bitter rivals Brighton.

Palace have now conceded a Premier League high 17 goals in their seven league games and were also beaten by Lyon in Europe in mid-week.

Unless Sage can turn that form around quickly, the former Lens chief’s stay at Selhurst Park could be short-lived.

CRYSTAL PALACE TO BE RELEGATED – currently at ? with starsports.bet

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🌳 OLI NOT SO JOLLY AS FOREST FIRE ANOTHER HOME BLANK

Another manager feeling the heat is Nottingham Forest’s Oliver Glasner.

Forest were competitive but toothless in their 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal in what was arguably the least exciting game of the season so far.

The mood among the City Ground faithful was as drab as the match and Forest fans are still waiting to cheer the first home goal of the Glasner era.

The Austrian got off to a similarly slow start at former club Crystal Palace before going on to deliver their first ever major trophies.

With a notoriously impatient owner in Evangelos Marinakis, will he get similar time to get his message across in NG2?

NOTTINGHAM FOREST TO BE RELEGATED – currently at ? with starsports.bet

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🌟 SHINING VILLA STAR SHOWS NEWCASTLE WHAT THEY ARE MISSING

Aston Villa continued their recent resurgence with a deserved 1-0 victory at Newcastle.

The irony of Johan Manzambi scoring the winner will not have been lost on the home supporters, who have seen their team lose three of their last four games.

Newcastle thought they were signing Manzambi in the summer before being hijacked by the men from Villa Park.

Since making his full debut in the 3-2 triumph at Tottenham, the Swiss international has either scored or assisted in every game.

At £50m the 21-year-old is already looking like a bargain buy.

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🔴 LIVERPOOL CHOOSIN’ TEXAS AFTER COMEBACK WIN

I am highly dubious that Liverpool would have beaten Brentford had it not been for Yehor Yarmoliuk’s brainless red card.

The Reds were underwhelming for large parts of their 2-1 triumph at the Gtech but nonetheless leapfrogged their hosts into the top five.

It was all smiles in the away dressing room after Alexander Isak’s winner and one of the main songs booming out as Liverpool’s stars celebrated was Ella Langley’s smash hit ‘Choosin’ Texas’.

In fact, there was a real country feel to the Reds’ playlist, presumably not the choice of manager Andoni Iraola.

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