Fabian Hurzeler sends message to Brighton fans after Nottingham Forest thrashing

Fabian Hurzeler has issued an apology to Brighton fans following the side’s embarrassing 7-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, admitting ‘everything went wrong’ at the City Ground.

Chris Wood completed a stunning hat-trick to continue his remarkable run in the Premier League this season, with Morgan Gibbs-White, Nico Williams and Jota Silva also hitting the target after Lewis Dunk’s early own goal.

Forest were themselves thrashed by Bournemouth last weekend and the response could hardly have been more emphatic from Nuno Espirito Santo’s men in front of a rapturous home crowd.

The result saw Forest open up a five-point gap over fourth-placed Newcastle in the table, with Eddie Howe’s side welcoming Fulham to St James’ Park this afternoon.

The Seagulls, meanwhile, remain stranded down in tenth place after a second successive defeat in the league and will aim to bounce back when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup fourth round in a week’s time.

‘In the end, we are responsible for the performance, we are responsible for the result,’ Brighton head coach Hurzeler told TNT Sports shortly after the final whistle.

‘That was not the performance we wanted to show and we are very disappointed.

‘We can just apologise for every supporter, for every fan that’s outside supporting us, for this result and this performance.

‘When you lose 7-0, I think everything went wrong so to choose a particular player or a particular phase of the game is not the right thing.

‘In the end, you win as a team and today we lose as a team, so we have to stick together, we have to analyse it and be honest to each other.’

Brighton were without Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari in midfield but Hurzeler refused to use the duo’s absence as an excuse for the heavy loss.

‘I wouldn’t say that was the main reason,’ the German said.

‘In the end, football is about doing the basic things right: running, counter-pressing, reacting, and I think with these things weren’t on our highest level and therefore we weren’t able to keep a clean sheet.

You can’t win in the Premier League playing like this.’

Espirito Santo was understandably delighted with the way his team managed to pick themselves up in the wake of their crushing setback against Bournemouth.

‘After what happened last week, the answer was good. We get punched, we get up. That was fantastic,’ the Forest manager explained.

‘These results are not normal in the Premier League. There’s always a reason. Last week, we didn’t do well and Bournemouth were ruthless. The same happened today with us and Brighton.

‘We got some luck with the first goal, that was the moment that Brighton wanted to react. We got lucky and after that I think we controlled it really well and, going forward, we were really good.’

Espirito Santo reserved special praise for Anthony Elanga, who wreaked havoc against Brighton and came away from the came with a hat-trick of assists.

On Elanga’s partnership with Wood in attack, he said: ‘It’s good. I think it’s routines, habits, getting to know better the spaces.

‘Anthony was amazing today.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.