The Premier League’s youngest manager Fabian Hurzeler celebrated a convincing winning start to his Brighton career with goals from Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck and Simon Adingra against a thoroughly demoralised Everton.
For the Merseysiders, defeat represented an awful opening day to their final season at Goodison Park and it was compounded by a red card at 2-0 for defender Ashley Young, who at 39 is eight years older than the triumphant Seagulls boss. There were boos around the ground from Evertonians at full-time.
Mitoma, playing his first game since February because of a back injury, opened the scoring midway through the first half with Welbeck adding a second early in the second half.