The Leeds United 0-1 Brighton: Pragmatic Albion beat Leeds… again

Beating The Leeds United and knocking their arrogant supporters down a peg or two is always satisfying, but there was something especially enjoyable about Leeds 0-1 Brighton.

Much of that derived from the nonsense we had to put up with in the summer surrounding Ben White. You know the story, but it is worth going over again as it makes this success all the more sweeter.

The Albion sent White to Elland Road for the 2019-20 season to get experience in the Championship, building on what he had learned in similar spells with League One Peterborough United and League Two Newport County. A carefully planned development pathway to Premier League football.

After White had a good season for The Leeds United, their fans thought he was as good as their player. They were adamant that Brighton would have to dance to their club’s tune and sell White to the Peacocks, because they won the old Division One in 1992 or something.

When it became clear that Tony Bloom was not going to play ball by turning down three bids from Elland Road, they then thought White would force though a move.

Apparently, he would be mad not to want to join The Leeds United permanently. #FreeBenWhite became a very real campaign, as if Bloom had White chained up to a radiator in a bathroom at the Amex like something out of Saw.

The Peacocks would be in the top six in their first Premier League season for 16 years whilst Brighton were certainties to be relegated. Marcelo Bielsa’s side would easily beat Brighton in both the meetings between the sides with 4-0 to The Leeds United a commonly found predicted scoreline.

Ah. That did not quite work out as they expected, did it? Instead, White was back at Elland Road in Brighton blue and playing his part in an outstanding performance which saw the Albion triumph 0-1 against a The Leeds United side who were, frankly, woeful.

Pundits have been falling over themselves so far this season to give Bielsa and his players credit for their style of football. Which is funny because The Leeds United are yet to score a team goal anywhere near as good as the Brighton effort 17 minutes into the first half which decided the game 0-1 in the visitors’ favour.

It was as if we had been transported back to 2011 and were watching Gus Poyet’s You Know Who’s League One champions cut through opponents like a knife through butter.

Alexis Mac Allister was the architect of the goal. Pascal Gross’ glorious touch found White inside the Brighton half and he drove into The Leeds United territory before finding Mac Allister.

The Argentinian then glided towards the home goal and a lovely one-two with Leandro Trossard got Mac Allister in behind the home defence, from where he swept a low pass across the face of goal for Neal Maupay to tap in.

Maupay loves a goal against The Leeds United, this being his fourth in five games and he celebrated in front of the home stands as if there were a crowd there to wind up.

Goal number seven of the season for the Frenchman and his third in his past six appearances since Boxing Day suggests he is a man very much over a barren autumn, during which he found himself dropped completely from the squad for the trip to Tottenham Hotspur because of questions over his attitude.

Also hitting form is Mac Allister. The playmaker was always going to need time to adapt as a 21-year-old moving from Argentina to the Premier League and Brighton’s patience appears to be paying off. He gave another excellent performance to follow up on Wednesday night’s promising showing in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.

In both the City game and the 0-1 victory over The Leeds United, Brighton recorded less possession than their opponents. Mac Allister seems to thrive in a side which plays on the break rather than one which focuses on keeping possession and patient build up play.

So too do Brighton. Of their six Premier League wins since the start of 2020, five have come in games in which the Albion have had under 50 percent possession.

When Graham Potter sends his team out with a more pragmatic approach than the normal possession obsession which underpins Potterball, Brighton are undeniably better. The proof of that pudding is in results.

Why then does Potter not set Brighton out to play this way on a more frequent basis? We have long since given up trying to understand what goes on in the mind of the Albion manager as it is a futile exercise. Baffling tactics, baffling substitutions and baffling team selections are par for the course.

Sometimes, Potter’s whacky ideas which appear to have been dreamt up after one too many pints of brandy work. Thankfully, The Leeds United 0-1 Brighton was one of those occasions where he made us all eat humble pie for doubting him.

The way in which the Peacocks play, with players pouring forward, leaves a lot of space for opponents who are quick and dynamic to exploit on the break. So what did Potter do at Elland Road? Name his most dynamic player in Yves Bissouma and his quickest player in Percy Tau on the bench.

In South Africa, they rioted. In England, we wondered if it might finally be the day when the men in white coats came for Potter. Five centre backs, two left wingers, two number 10s and a centre forward in the starting XI. The Roulette Selection Wheel had been working overtime.

And yet it worked beautifully. Brighton looked as good defensively as they have done all season. Joel Veltman and Adam Webster were outstanding in their defending and launched frequent raids into the Champions of Europe’s half with the ball at their feet. Lewis Dunk was Lewis Dunk and even the much-maligned Dan Burn played well on the left.

White had his best game in a Brighton shirt in the middle of the park, making a mockery of those of us who could not understand why he was in there over Bissouma. When The Leeds United fans said in the summer that White loved playing at Elland Road, they were not wrong.

Gross and Mac Allister buzzed around in front of him, Solly March and Trossard were lively in wide positions and Maupay is now just three goals short of his tally for 2019-20 with half of the current campaign still left to play.

To a man, Brighton were faultless. Hats off to Potter. Robert Sanchez did not make a save of any note because of the protection offered in front of him. His contribution to the win was to venture into brave areas to eat aerial balls pumped into the box with the ease of Elvis gorging on a cheeseburger.

Other than the goal, clear cut chances were few and far between for either side. It was hardly a classic, not helped by the fact that the Elland Road pitch appeared to have hosted a ploughing match in the build up to the game. There are flatter cabbage patches at the Middle Road allotments in Shoreham.

Trossard had Brighton’s two best opportunities to increase the advantage. Luke Ayling used his knee to deflect a first half effort from the Belgian onto the bar and he fired over in the second half after good work from Maupay.

Jack Harrison should have done better for The Leeds United when a nice passing move presented him with a sight of goal. His powerful curler had Sanchez rooted to the spot but thankfully, it flew just wide of the upright.

Although the hosts never really threatened, Brighton have developed a liking this season for finding ways to throw away points. The longer that it stayed 1-0, the more shredded the nerves of Albion fans everywhere became.

When three The Leeds United players all tried to go for a shot with 10 minutes remaining only to fall over each other, we probably should have realised that the hosts were not going to find a way back into.

Years of experience though ingrains into Brighton followers that it is never over until the fat lady sings, or in this case until the referee blows his final whistle and the rotund Argentinian manager who was in the top three for FIFA Coach of the Year 2020 gets off his bucket.

After outsmarting Bielsa, does that mean Potter is now one of the top three managers in the world, just below Crawley Town boss John Yems who oversaw a 3-0 win against The Leeds United last Sunday? It has been a good week for Sussex against Yorkshire.

The relief at full time both from the players at Elland Road and Brighton fans watching at home was obvious. Whilst Dunk celebrated like he had just won the World Cup, White had the mischievous look on his face of a man who has just seen his ex-girlfriend has hit upon such hard times that she has taken to appearing on Naked Attraction whilst he is now dating Jennifer Lawrence. #FreeBenWhite indeed.

A first win in 10 was much needed and prevented the Albion setting a new record for their longest winless streak in the top flight. West Bromwich Albion’s 3-2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier in the day had also ratcheted up the pressure in the relegation battle with the Baggies and Fulham starting to show that they will not go down without a fight.

If Brighton could play The Leeds United every week, then we would not be in trouble towards the bottom. In fact, we would probably be pushing for the Champions League.

The biggest club in the world the Peacocks may be, but this represented the Albion’s ninth win in the past 13 matches between the two. As the old saying goes, nothing is certain in life except death, taxes and three points against The Leeds United.

Enjoy it, folks. As we said back in the opening few paragraphs, the Albion deserve it after all that summer nonsense coming from the Leeds locals.

We are now off to delete all those tweets questioning whether Potter was insane when the team was announced at 2pm. Sorry for doubting you, Graham.