By SABC Sport
19th February 2024
The Seagulls remained in the race for a top-six Premier League finish with a 5-0 demolition of Sheffield United on Sunday, which came three weeks after a 5-2 FA Cup win at Bramall Lane.
Goals from Facundo Buonanotte and Welbeck, Simon Adingra's double and a Jack Robinson own goal did the damage for the Seagulls as they remain six points behind sixth-placed Manchester United.
Manager De Zerbi has taken Brighton to the next level since his appointment in 2022, with the club resuming their Europa League campaign soon, and Welbeck puts it down to the Italian's standards.
"He is always demanding, every single moment, every single day, every single second so there is no time to rest," Welbeck said on the club's official website.
"That is one of the great things about him.
"It was a different game than the one we faced in the FA Cup a few weeks back, but it is important we got the three points. Five goals, a clean sheet, it has been positive."
The afternoon could not have gone much worse for Sheffield United, who conceded five at home for the third successive game.
Mason Holgate's red card after 13 minutes set the course of the game and they capitulated from there to leave themselves staring relegation in the face.
But plans went awry before the game as Cameron Archer hobbled out of training on Saturday morning.
Blades boss Chris Wilder said: "Cameron trained Thursday and trained Friday and felt OK, then his calf tightened. A tight calf and a real slight strain.
"We changed the team after the last bit of training on Saturday morning when he hobbled out. So disappointing from that point of view.
"Ben (Brereton Diaz) wasn't close. We'll assess him this week, and Oli (McBurnie) the same.
"He had 10 minutes in the locker but I wanted him around and would have chucked him on for the last 10 minutes but this is the difficult part, we're looking at players who can only play a certain amount of minutes and we're having to make physical substitutions."