"It's important for him to feel confident and he needs that but he is much more than that," Silva told BT Sport, calling Mitrovic "unbelievable".

"We demand it from him but he did it really well."

Brighton captain Lewis Dunk diverted Andreas Pereira's cross past Sanchez as Fulham doubled their lead and made a drab first period seem a distant memory within 11 minutes of the second half starting.

Alexis Mac Allister converted a penalty in reply after Bobby Decordova-Reid brought down Pervis Estupinan, and Deniz Undav was denied his first goal for Brighton when his late strike came off a post.

Fourth-placed Brighton missed the chance to move top of the table before leaders Arsenal host Aston Villa on Wednesday, while victory lifted Fulham up to sixth and gave the Cottagers as many home wins as they managed in their 2020-21 Premier League relegation season.

Centurion Mitrovic inspires Fulham

It was no surprise that Fulham failed to score in the first 45 minutes against opponents who are the only team to have begun the season by keeping a first-half clean sheet in five Premier League matches.

The hosts had made a bright start before Brighton manager Graham Potter introduced a change around the 15-minute mark, moving from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 with the aim of matching Fulham's formation and stemming their flow of attacks through the middle of the pitch.

Energetic midfielders Moises Caicedo and Enock Mwepu, making his first start of the Premier League season, patrolled in front of a back four bolstered by Ecuadorian Estupinan and keen to assert control with their customary patient passing.

Pascal Gross, who scored three times in Brighton's opening four games, could not trouble Bernd Leno after a neat exchange with Caicedo, and another midfielder with an eye for goal, Andreas Pereira, failed to match power with accuracy from a useful free-kick at the opposite end.

Kebano and Decordova-Reid showed quick feet to keep Joel Veltman busy before the defender was substituted and the dependable Dunk - who would suffer the misfortune of the sixth own-goal of his career - frequently dropped deep in a bid to stop Mitrovic.

Fulham forced a transformation in tempo after the break - and that must have been a relief to fans who had watched both sides under-perform in a first half sorely lacking spark.

A persistent spell of counter-attacking and crosses told when Mitrovic scored, and that same determination helped Fulham to hold out as Brighton so nearly equalised during a full-throttle finale for both sets of players.

"We really wanted three points," a grinning Mitrovic said afterwards. "Sometimes you have to dig in, work hard. We worked so hard for each other. We wanted these three points more."