Match Review: Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace
Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace. Losing at home to your arch rivals is a result that is always likely to spark a supporter meltdown. But what made the Albion’s first defeat at the Amex to Palace since 2012 so disappointing is the wider implications in a season which is fast heading off the rails.
Brighton had to beat Palace, not just for the sake of bragging rights. Between now and the end of April, the Albion face Wolverhampton Wanderers away, Arsenal at home, Leicester City away, Manchester United at home, Norwich City away, Liverpool at home and Manchester City at home.
Six games out of our next seven are against teams chasing a top five finish. The other is against a Norwich side who, although bottom of the table, seem to be picking up somewhat as shown by their Friday night victory over Leicester.
Throw in the fact that Brighton are yet to win a Premier League game away at newly promoted sides in seven previous attempts and that we’ve tasted victory only twice on the road under Graham Potter, there’s no guarantee of getting a result at Carrow Road either.
Following a weekend of shock results, the relegation zone is now just one point away. Of the four sides below us in the table, Plucky Little Bournemouth drew with Chelsea, West Ham beat Southampton and Watford picked up arguably the result of the season in hammering previously unbeaten Liverpool 3-0.
Aston Villa weren’t in league action due to their Camila Cabello Cup Final against Manchester City. If Villa win their resulting game in hand, they’ll go above the Albion.
Brighton meanwhile remain the only club out of the 92 in the professional football system without a victory in 2020. Since Potter was handed a new six year deal in November, we’ve won just two out of 17 Premier League fixtures. For comparison, Chris Hughton’s record after New Year’s Day last season was two wins in 18 league games.
The big question is where is the next win coming from? Given that we’ve failed to beat West Ham, Burnley, Southampton, Villa, Watford and now Palace at the Amex, can anyone seriously say they expect home fixtures with four of the big six to deliver three points? You’ve got more chance of snorting phlegm in Wuhan and living to tell the tale.
Most troubling of all is the way that Potter seems to be burying his head in the sand, ostrich-like about the problem. Brian Owen from The Argus quite rightly put it to the Brighton manager that losing 0-1 at home to Crystal Palace was the low point of the season, but Potter wasn’t having any of it.
Potter instead talked about the performance being good. He refused to criticise his players, despite the fact that they were wasteful at one end and shocking defensively at the other, allowing Jordan Ayew to easily score what proved to be the winner.
Was the performance really that good when the highlight of the 90 minutes for most Brighton supporters was unused sub Ezequiel Schelotto getting booked for winding up Wilfried Zaha?
And if you happen to be in the minority who were happy with the way we played, you do realise that good performances alone don’t keep you up?
The Premier League aren’t going to turn around and say, “You know what, Brighton may have won only six games all season, but they’ve played some pretty nice possession football, so let’s give them 10 extra points.”
We thought after last week’s 1-1 draw at Sheffield United that Potter was beginning to realise that. He abandoned Potterball in favour of naming the starting XI best suited to getting a point at Bramall Lane – exactly the sort of approach and result that goes a long way to keeping a side in the Premier League.
And yet here, it was back to Potterball and trying to play a certain way, even though a more pragmatic approach designed to take advantage of weaknesses in the opposition could have yielded a different result.
We’re talking about Glenn Murray, who had scored four times in his previous four appearances against Palace, being dropped to the bench.
Murray always nets against Palace, just like he always scores against West Ham. It’s a more frequent occurrence than Boris Johnson getting another woman up the duff. Potter utilised that fact at the London Stadium back at the start of the month, but here Murray got just 24 minutes against his former club.
And when he finally did enter proceedings, it was in place of Solly March. Not only had March been arguably the Albion’s most dangerous player, but Potter was throwing on a striker who thrives on crosses into the box in place of the winger who could provide those crosses into the box. How did that make sense?
Giving the second-most clinical striker in the Premier League last season less than 30 minutes in a game in which you need to score is mad. Especially when you are so wasteful in front of goal.
Had either of these sides known how to score, then it could have quite feasibly finished 8-8 rather than Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace.
Palace missed a golden opportunity inside the opening 10 minutes when Christian Benteke escaped the attentions of Adam Webster to get on the end of James McArthur’s lofted pass, but he put his volley comically wide with only Ryan to beat.
Cheikhou Kouyate got an effort caught under his feet when he collected a Benteke knockdown from a corner, allowing Maty Ryan to save well at the feet of the Senegal international.
The best chance either side spurned came Palace’s way in the final minute, when Zaha hilariously had an open goal to aim at but could only hit the post from a matter of yards. At least that gave us something to laugh about.
For Brighton, March hit the side netting with an astonishing first half miss after Leandro Trossard’s cross field pass. Neal Maupay had two or three good half chances, including one volley that he placed straight at Vicente Guaita.
Lewis Dunk nearly marked his 100th Premier League appearance with a goal but his powerful header was blocked by Maupay of all people.
Not taking chances has been an issue for Brighton all season and in fairness to Potter, he can’t make the ball hit the back of the net.
But this isn’t exactly a new problem. In the Albion’s two Premier League seasons under Hughton, Murray was responsible for 36% of our goals – no club has ever been so reliant on one player to score since Sky Sports invented football in 1992.
Last season, Dunk and Shane Duffy were the best defensive partnership outside of the top six. Why then did we go and spend £18 million on a new centre back, when that money could have been better invested in signing another striker to try and address the lack of goals?
Palace picked up Gary Cahill – an outstanding piece of recruitment given the season he’s having – on a free transfer. We meanwhile bought Webster for a club record fee, a player who we probably didn’t need and who certainly hasn’t done anything to suggest he’s an upgrade on Duffy.
If anything, the changes that Potter has made to the defence have weakened the Albion. Hughton’s back line kept us in the Premier League; it rarely produced the sort of slapdash defending that allowed Palace to net with 70 minutes on the clock.
Benteke made the goal, escaping with the ball after neither Davy Propper or Webster put in a firm enough tackle out on the right hand touchline 30 yards up the pitch.
Lord knows how Webster had been dragged out there, but he then found himself unable to keep pace with Benteke who swanned into the middle completely unchallenged.
As a result, Dunk found himself drifting into no man’s land in the middle of the box, neither close enough to Benteke to stop him coming forward nor in a position to track the run of Ayew.
In fact, Dunk’s questionable positioning had opened up a huge gap for Benteke to steer the ball into. Ayew gleefully picked it up before hitting a low effort at the legs of Ryan, despite which the shot still found its way into the bottom corner. Woeful defending, woeful goalkeeping, yet no criticism from Potter.
As soon as the scoreboard ticked over to Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace, there was a sense of resignation around the Amex. Palace fans knew they’d won it and let off a massive smoke bomb to celebrate.
Seemingly, this is a less dangerous weapon than a bottle top in the hands of an Albion fan given the KGB style pat down home supporters receive on their way into the stadium to prevent anyone smuggling in a Fanta with a lid.
Brighton fans meanwhile knew that it was game over. We could have continued for another two weeks and we still wouldn’t have scored.
Missed chances, poor defending, questionable decisions from the management. Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace summed up the Albion’s season in 90 disappointing minutes. It’s a season which, at this moment in time, looks to be heading one way.
