​Like it was in Lyon on Thursday, Palace’s afternoon started disastrously; Pascal Groß whipped a brilliant free kick in from the left-hand side, which was flicked into his own net by Canvot. It was now eight first-half goals conceded in seven Premier League games.

​It got even more catastrophic in the seventh minute with an incredible piece of precision from Diego Gomez, as he scored from the halfway line and caught out Walter Benitez, who was all at sea.

​Brighton then inflicted more pain on Palace when they made it 3-0. Charalampos Kostoulas backheel deflected into the path of Yasin Ayari. He fired into the bottom corner, via another deflection from Canvot.

​Palace’ defensive woes had been a key concern in the first few weeks of Pierre Sage’s reign, but to be 3-0 down in 10 minutes to one of their biggest rivals was a low point of the season so far.

​For a while, they managed to survive conceding any big chances, though Gomxez would have had his second and Brighton’s fourth after he met Olivier Boscagli’s cross to the back post, if not for a last-ditch block from Honest Ahanor, which he didn’t know much about.

​Benitez made amends for the second goal with a smart save to deny Ferdi Kadıoğlu, seven minutes before half-time, but Palace provided no threat at all in the first half, and it was now more about maintaining pride.

However, things didn’t get much better at the start of the second half; Brighton made it 4-0 five minutes into the final 45, and Kostoulas delivered the goal that he had been threatening to get all afternoon. Groß’s pull-back to Ayari eventually fell kindly to the Greek forward, who sat Benitez down and tapped home from close range; there was a VAR check for handball, but the goal was awarded.

​Jean-Philippe Mateta came on for his first league appearance since the opening day defeat at Everton, and immediately should’ve scored as he slammed an effort onto the crossbar and over from close range. It was moments like that which summed up Crystal Palace’s afternoon, that and Lerma scuffing a clearance under no pressure out for a corner.

​To compound things even more, it was a set piece which led to Brighton’s fifth six minutes from time; a deep corner was headed back to Luka Vušković and pushed away by Benitez, only to hit the recently introduced Jack Hinshelwood to tap into an empty net.

​Brighton could not find a sixth goal and record their biggest win over the Eagles outright, but they’d been night and day ahead of the Eagles. 17 goals conceded in seven Premier League games, and just two points clear of the relegation zone.

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