Brighton earned a third straight Premier League victory as Maxim De Cuyper and Jaouen Hadjam were on target in a 2-0 win at Sunderland despite Pascal Struijk's red card.
Sunderland 0-2 Brighton: Three in a row for Hurzeler's men despite Struijk red
Pascal Struijk saw red but Brighton were still too good in a 2-0 Premier League triumph over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
De Cuyper opened the scoring after 53 minutes at the Stadium of Light, sliding past Robin Roefs after great work by Pascal Gross.
Struijk was shown a straight red for bringing down Wilson Isidor shortly after, but Hadjam made sure of the points in second-half injury time as Brighton backed up wins over Coventry City and Arsenal.
Brighton had the better openings in a dismal first half, with Diego Gomez denied by one-on-one by Roefs in just the eighth minute after an error from Kevin Danso.
Nordi Mukiele's 30-yard effort was saved low to the left by Bart Verbruggen in Sunderland's only shot on target of the first half.
Struijk's guided header from Gross' free-kick came back off the left post on the stroke of half-time, but the visitors went ahead after 53 minutes.
Gomez's flicked header was picked up by Gross, who slipped in De Cuyper to coolly roll past Roefs into the bottom-left corner.
Just four minutes later, Brighton were down to 10 as Struijk was sent off when referee Thomas Bramall judged his haul on Isidor was a denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
Gross nearly made it 2-0 with an audacious effort from inside his own half after picking Granit Xhaka's pocket, but Roefs was relieved to see it go past the right-hand post.
Brighton did make sure of the win, though, as Georginio Rutter rolled the ball into the path of Hadjam, who drilled his shot past Roefs and into the bottom-right corner.
Gross contributes again as Brighton roll on
There was little to split the teams in a first half that produced little in terms of quality, with just one shot on target from either side – albeit Struijk also hit the post for Brighton.
The Seagulls, fresh off a wonderful 3-0 win over champions Arsenal prior to the international break, will feel they edged proceedings and you could not really argue when they hit the front.
Gross was influential again for Brighton, and he now has four Premier League assists – the most in the division – and has contributed two goals and four assists in his past three top-flight outings.
Brighton, who are just two points off top spot in third, have now won on back-to-back visits to the Stadium of Light having failed to win on any of their previous nine league visits (D2, L7).
The visitors were good value for the win, and finished the game with an xG of 1.12 to Sunderland's 0.64 despite playing much of the second half a man down.
Fabian Hurzeler's side now have three straight wins without conceding, with Brighton having achieved such a feat just once in the Premier League back in 2018.
