Iwobi, others showed good team spirit, organisation and desire – Benitez

Everton manager, Rafa Benitez, is delighted with his team victory at Brighton, saying that the match gave them Lots of positives to forge ahead in the Premier League.

Everton extended their unbeaten start to the Premier League season as they produced a classy display to deservedly beat Brighton.

Demarai Gray opened the scoring with a fine individual effort four minutes before the break as the Toffees managed a first win at Brighton in five attempts stretching back to April 1983.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his third goal of the campaign from the spot, but only after Richarlison – who wanted to take the penalty – reluctantly gave up the ball.

Seamus Coleman won the penalty after the Everton captain was brought down by Brighton substitute Joel Veltman, and the Republic of Ireland right-back quickly asserted his authority when he convinced Richarlison to hand the ball over to England striker Calvert-Lewin, who converted from 12 yards for the second game in a row.

The result ends Brighton’s 100% start to the season and leaves Everton second in the table, if only until the late game between Liverpool and Chelsea.

“We showed good team spirit, organisation and desire. I’m really pleased, we won, clean sheet – lots of positives.

“We had chances in the first half but we were missing the last pass, we improved in the second half.

“Demarai Gray has been working hard in training, he’s improving. He has more confidence and he’s pushing to play. It’s nice having players that train that way, making sure the manager selects them.

“With the penalty, (Dominic Calvert-Lewin) is the first taker, Richarlison knows he’s the second one. The main thing is that he scored, we won. We have to compete in training to see who scores more penalties, but at the moment Dominic is the first one.”