Luton move out of relegation zone after Adebayo hat-trick shocks Brighton | first division

Whatever happens during the rest of the season and wherever Luton find themselves playing football next year, they must never forget this night; If they somehow come close to perfection, it will be a sight to behold.

“Luton played one of the best games of the season,” was the verdict of a visibly tired Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi. It had been a difficult watch for the man on the visiting bench.

Less than six months ago, in their first Premier League game, Rob Edwards' team received a lesson in top-flight football in a complete 4-1 defeat at Brighton. Revenge at home was as sweet as it was forceful, and the south coast visitors were impressed from the referee's first whistle.

Within 19 seconds, Luton were ahead. At 2 minutes and 17 seconds, that lead was doubled. Not since 1998 has a Premier League team scored two goals so quickly at the start of a match.

But this was no passing gust; For 90 minutes, Luton's attack did not let up, and Elijah Adebayo seemed to channel the best of Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé in one of the best performances of any top-flight striker this campaign.

His hat-trick, the first scored by a Luton player in the Premier League, destroyed their opponents in European football and helped his team escape the relegation.^­gation zone in the process.

Most people thought Luton would have been long dead and buried by the time the winter ice melted in this Premier League campaign. However, with just one sunset left in February, Kenilworth Road echoed with the sounds of “we stayed up” sung by a local support who had started the night with a hero's welcome for Tom Lockyer on his return to the field for his first game before the game. wander from his cardiac arrest last month.

“It was a good night, wasn't it?” Edwards said. “We had a really excellent performance. I'm very proud of us. Try to start aggressively and on the front foot. But it was important that we stay firm and do the right thing. We were relentless. The game plan was right and they committed to it. “The guys were excellent tonight.”

With each passing minute, this evolved into the kind of performance that Luton fans would never have dared dream of when they first earned a place in the Premier League. The trust shown was amazing. No, more than that: sheer arrogance. Brighton, a team that beat Ajax, Marseille and AEK Athens this season, could not lay a glove on the hosts.

No one personified Luton's brilliance better than the best performance of Adebayo, who was playing in League Two three years ago. Every time the ball entered its orbit, he looked like a man with such conviction that he could part the Red Sea if he so desired.

His aspirations were suitably low-key on this cold Tuesday night, content instead to simply terrorize the Brighton defence.

Their first goal came almost directly from the kick-off, in which Chiedozie Ogbene sent in a looping cross, Carlton Morris headed goalwards and Adebayo helped it forward.

Ogbene quickly added another as he brushed past Jason Steele, horribly out of position, before Adebayo's show continued.

Just before the break, he opened up the opposition defenders by combining beautifully with Ross Barkley before hitting the bottom corner. He then capped off a memorable outing to nod in Alfie Doughty's corner from a couple of yards and was soon heading to a standing ovation.

“Throughout my entire career, you dream of nights like this, playing in non-league,” Adebayo said. “Many of us who have been on such a journey thrive and look forward to nights like this. “I couldn’t be happier for the group of guys that are there, who have been on an incredible journey.”

The defeat means Brighton, who lost their star striker João Pedro to injury late on, have won just three Premier League games since September and have failed to score in their last three league matches.

After failing to get a shot on goal until the 77th minute, the final whistle brought blessed relief. “We didn't play,” De Zerbi said. “It was a blackout. We have to remember this day.

“We played poorly, no player played well and so did our substitutes. Everyone has to take responsibility. This defeat is very, very, very hard. “I'm sure we played the worst game of my time.”