Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton: Rubbish referee & flawed finishing cost Albion

If one game could sum up Brighton & Hove Albion under Graham Potter, then this 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace was it.

You probably don’t need us to remind you of the match statistics, but we are going to anyway. Brighton had 66% possession, 20 shots and five corners in a game in which they were completely dominant.

What did all that get us? An Alexis Mac Allister equaliser in the 90th minute. There was a lot of style in the way Brighton kept the ball, but absolutely no substance where it mattered in the final third. Potter’s Albion in a nutshell.

Palace meanwhile mustered one shot all game. They needed a bloody big helping hand with that too, Stuart Attwell awarding one of the softest penalties you will ever see. Wilfried Zaha tucked it away for his seventh career goal against the Albion. Palace were awful.

On afternoons like this, Zaha must wonder what he is doing at Selhurst Park still. Why is a player as good as he pratting around at a team who cannot muster a single shot against their arch rivals without being given a disgraceful spot kick?

Watching the 90 minutes, you could almost find yourself feeling sorry for the Palace fans who have to sit through that dirge every week. Almost, but not quite.

Potter gave us another spin of the position roulette wheel from igamingsearch.com before the match in response to the 4-2 defeat at Everton last time out.

Dan Burn came in for his first Premier League start of the season as part of the back three, Ben White pushed into midfield, Adam Lallana filled the number 10 role and Leandro Trossard joined Neal Maupay up front.

Other than Mr Attwell’s interesting 90 minutes, it was Maupay who was the main focus of attention as he missed two chances that a £20 million centre forward really has to be scoring.

The most mystifying came when he was in one-on-one with Vicente Guaita. All Maupay needed to do was put his foot through the ball and place it out of reach of the Palace goalkeeper, a relatively straightforward task you would think for a striker who had four goals in four games to his name so far this season.

Instead, Maupay took an extra touch and tried to cut back inside. The result was two Palace players closing him down and the ball being deflected over the bar when he eventually managed to get a shot away.

It was almost like he wasn’t thinking straight. As if he had got in on goal and then realised that he might have left the oven on; that distracted him and as a result, a terrible piece of decision making had taken place.

Earlier, Maupay had brought a low cross under control, perhaps taken another unnecessary touch and then trickled a weak effort with no conviction towards the hands of Guatia. Two massive opportunities that should have been converted.

The Albion’s best chances aside from Maupay’s came when White flashed an effort wide of the post and Bissouma drove a volley into the side netting.

Both of those count as off target, of course – and herein lies another problem. Brighton may have taken 20 shots in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, but 17 of them didn’t trouble Guatia at all.

You don’t need to have a deep understanding of football to know that if you cannot put the ball on target, you are not going to score a goal.

In the BBC’s match report, Shamoon Hafez wrote: “Potter’s side play attractive football, their passing is neat and crisp but attacks fall apart too often in the final third or they fail to work the goalkeeper.”

“Just three shots were on target, with Mac Allister’s goal punishing Joel Ward’s clearance, but the other two efforts from Neal Maupay were comfortable for Palace goalkeeper Guaita to deal with.”

“The Seagulls finished 15th last season, seven points clear of the relegation zone, and they may be looking over their shoulders again if finishing and results do not improve.”

Talk of another relegation battle is not what Brighton fans will want to see, but unless the Albion find a way to be better in the final third then this season could follow an eerily similar path to the last.

The first half of 2019-20 was dominated by the comment “We’re playing well, results will come.” They only ever came sporadically until the final nine games of the season when the Albion’s post-lockdown form ultimately saved the club from relegation.

You do not get bonus points for playing pretty football. If you did, Brighton would be flying this season. Perhaps that is something that the Albion should put forward next time another Project Big Picture plan inevitably rears its ugly head.

How about a panel of experts can award clubs up to three extra points for how well they keep possession and their dominance of games? It wouldn’t matter then that Brighton cannot score goals as we would be racking up the bonuses every week.

It would also mean that decisions like Mr Attwell’s for the penalty aren’t as decisive. Michy Batshuayi went down as if he had been shot by a sniper from the Holmesdale End under minimal contact from the arms of Tariq Lamptey.

If that is a penalty, then any time a defender brushes the shirt of an attack in the box then a spot kick should be given. What made Mr Attwell’s madness all the more frustrating is that Connolly took a dive in the box himself in near-identical circumstances later on and the referee waved him up. If you are going to be clueless, at least be consistently clueless.

Of course, Mr Attwell’s ineptitude would not have mattered had Maupay buried either of those easy chances or the Albion done more with the ball in Palace’s third.

The referee provides a convenient scapegoat for the fact that Brighton were their own worst enemy at times in drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace.

That wastefulness looked like it would send the Seagulls to an underserved defeat right up until the final minute. Connolly and Mac Allister had been introduced 12 minutes earlier, a good decision from Potter as the duo combined to fashion an equaliser.

Connolly slipped a ball into a dangerous area and Mac Allister took on a shot from the edge of the box, something which hardly anybody else had either the confidence or the inclination to do. The Argentinian was rewarded with a first Premier League goal, his powerful drive flying into the bottom corner.

There was still time for a little more drama as Lewis Dunk picked up his first braindead red card for a couple of years. In a moment of madness born out of frustration, Dunk jumped into a horrible two footed lunge on Gary Cahill as a scramble from a Brighton corner came to nothing.

Watch it back in slow motion and you can see the exact moment that Dunk thinks, “OH **** IT” and launches into his assault, no doubt because he was thoroughly pissed off at his side’s failure to win the game.

Whilst we all might enjoy an assault on an Eagles player, Dunk’s attack on Cahill means he will now be suspended for West Bromwich Albion at home, Tottenham Hotspur away and Burnley at home.

After drawing 1-1 at Crystal Palace, Brighton really need to win the two Amex fixtures to avoid getting dragged into the early relegation battle.

The Albion captain will not be the only one missing those matches. All three are to be broadcast on Sky Sports PPV at a cost of £15 each.

To see how Brighton cope without Dunk and how new signing Danny Welbeck fits in, it will cost supporters £60 on top of the money they have already paid for a season ticket, Sky subscription and BT Sport subscription.

It is greed and gluttony on behalf of the Premier League, pure and simple. Which is why football supporters across the country are refusing to pay it.

Newcastle United fans donated the £15 cost of watching their game on Saturday against Manchester United to a foodbank in the city. It raised £16,000, an astonishing effort which highlights the good that can come from the #BoycottPPV campaign.

We all know that Brighton need to be better in the final third if they are to get the points they need from the West Brom and Burnley games. After donating our £15 to the Brighton Food Bank, we will have to wait for Match of the Day to find out if we can be.