When four first-team players are absent through injury and a fifth is making his home debut in goal, a manager's immediate concern tends to narrow sharply. Régis Le Bris arrived at the Stadium of Light on Saturday having to solve a puzzle with missing pieces, and for long stretches of the afternoon his patched-up side solved it remarkably well.

Enzo Le Fée and Nilson Angulo were the most conspicuous absences from a Sunderland team that also had to manage without Robin Roefs, Nordi Mukiele, and Reinildo. Into the void stepped 18-year-old Chris Rigg, and the teenager responded with one of the most complete performances of his fragile first-team career. An acrobatic overhead kick in the first half stung the air just wide. Minutes into the second half he appeared to have claimed his first Premier League goal — a brilliantly angled right-footed finish past Bart Verbruggen — only for a VAR review to detect an offside on Omar Alderete in the build-up. The stadium's collective exhale was almost audible.

That, as it transpired, was both the peak and the pivot of the afternoon. A minute later Brighton were ahead thanks to misfortune more than quality. Yankuba Minteh swung at a corner clearance intending to cross; the ball looped off his boot at an angle that foxed debutant goalkeeper Melker Ellborg, creeping in at the near post. Sunderland screamed for a foul on Habib Diarra — who lay stricken in the area at the time — but the goal stood.

For Brighton, it was a win built on resilience and occasional fortune rather than dominance, with Diego Gómez squandering a sitter that could have killed the contest entirely. James Milner, 40 years old and still completing 90 minutes at the heart of their midfield, embodied everything Hürzeler's side stand for. That a hollowed-out Sunderland came within a VAR call of matching them tells its own uncomfortable story about what this injury crisis is slowly costing Le Bris's side.