BRIGHTON, England -- It was a goal Lionel Messi would have been proud of. But not for the reasons you might think.
When Diego Gómez won the ball back near the halfway line, we can presume two things would have crossed his mind. The first was that Crystal Palace goalkeeper Walter Benítez was standing considerably off his line. The second was a piece of advice he received from Messi when they were teammates at Inter Miami.
"He always told me to play forward and, when I have the ball, to have no fear," Gómez said of the Argentine in an interview soon after joining the club.
The Paraguay international took both of these things to an extreme, lobbing Benitez from 56 yards out. The home supporters were already delirious after Jaydee Canvot's fourth-minute own-goal, and this tipped them over.
Grey clouds had dramatically burst upon the Amex moments before kickoff and, after Gómez's goal, the floodgates were opened. Yasin Ayari made it 3-0 within 10 minutes before further goals in the second half from Charalampos Kostoulas and Jack Hinshelwood saw it finish 5-0 to the Seagulls.
Brighton have never lacked for aesthetic appeal; Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi and now Fabian Hürzeler have all built devastating forward lines. But this Gómez strike was of a different ilk and for those lucky to witness it in the Amex Stadium, it felt transcendental.
This feeling didn't stem from the goal's adroitness, rather its audacity. The noise went through the roof, and it felt like there was no ceiling. Suddenly, anything felt possible. The result took them provisionally into second, but finished the weekend in third after Arsenal just got past Nottingham Forest later in the afternoon.
For so long, Brighton have been held as a beacon of modernity. No conversation about the Seagulls is complete without the use of the word 'analytics.' And yet, there has always been a patronising air that borders on dismissive to the way in which they are discussed.
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Some of this is because for the majority of the footballing public, eschewing the eye-test for Excel when analysing a player remains a vexing concept. Having a starting lineup composed of players that your average football fan on the street would struggle to name adds to this. The lack of an English core in the squad furthers the sense of them being an entity unto themselves.
The numbers are the narrative for a club like Brighton and often, it has felt like they have lacked the intangibles to capture one's imagination. Their recruitment models have helped them spot players like Kostoulas, who scored his fifth goal of the season on Sunday. But confidence, and dare I say, aura, can't be unearthed on spreadsheets.
But Brighton's start to the season means that those ingredients are slowly coming together.
It began prior to kick-off, when the stadium announcer preceded announcing Pascal Gross' name in the lineups with the word 'GOAT.' On the evidence of his performance, it didn't feel like hyperbole. The 35-year-old German once again belied his age and had a role to play in three of the five goals. Remarkably, this was the first time he has been substituted in a Premier League game this season.
His most devastating contribution was for the third goal, in which he showed devastating spatial awareness to let a cross from Kostoulas pass him by and allow for Ayari to fire home Brighton's third.
"Are you Arsenal in disguise?" chanted the home fans in celebration. The guts.
In that opening period, it felt like the home fans were sucking the ball into the net. Palace looked like conceding each time Brighton surged forward. A German boss on the touchlines, a team that presses ferociously and a wall of noise around them -- at times, the Amex felt transformed into Anfield. Hürzeler's fist-bump celebration with the fans at full-time furthered that feeling.
In the Brighton offices, there is a wall with the phrase 'Challenge the establishment.' It's a phrase that Fabian Hürzeler used in his first news conference as Brighton boss. On Sunday, for the first time, it felt like that internal messaging began to seep out in a tangible way.
Hürzeler encouraged Brighton fans to not get carried away by the table at this stage in his post-match news conference. He's right, of course, the season is only seven match weeks old. But, having a fanbase that dreams will only work in his team's favour.
The demolition of Palace at the Amex will be remembered eternally in these parts for Gómez's strike. But perhaps, Brighton will look back on this game as the day they began to feel that their relentless challenges to the establishment truly burst out of the ether.
Brighton have beaten Arsenal and Manchester United this season, so there's an irony to the fact it crystalised in a game against a side that has won just twice this season.
"Let's all go out to the terrace and watch that again," the stadium PA said at the end of the game as the fans made their way out. It summed the afternoon up for Brighton.