2017/18 Season Review – Part One
It will be more than a one season stay in the Premier League for Brighton and Hove Albion after Chris Hughton’s side defied the pre-season predictions to avoid an immediate return to the Championship, finishing the 2017-18 season in 15th spot, some seven points clear of the drop zone.
The Albion hit the magical 40 points target with two games to spare after a stunning victory over runners up Manchester United in what was the high point of a season packed with plenty of those.
We’ve visited some of the most famous stadiums in the world, seen some of the greatest players in the world and been on a journey that made all those years of struggle in the lower divisions with no home ground seem a million miles away.
So sit back and relax as we relive the 2017-18 season with part one of our Season Review.
Pre-season 2017
They were still clearing up the ticker tape off of Hove Lawns from the Parade to Celebrate Finishing Second in the Championship when Brighton made their first signing ahead of the Premier League season, the previously unknown Pascal Gross arriving from Ingolstadt for £3m.
He was followed through the door a month later by Maty Ryan, a £5m replacement from Valencia for David Stockdale who had decided that, rather than play in the top flight, he wanted to count all the money given to him by ‘Arry Redknapp in a shiny new house next to Spaghetti Junction. Ryan’s capture was the first of three times in the summer that the Albion would break their transfer record.
Ingolstadt were raided again for left back Markus Suttner, a £2m capture and Izzy Brown turned down the opportunity to rejoin Huddersfield, instead deciding to move to the Amex from Chelsea on a season-long loan. There could’ve been further signings but in two remarkable cock ups, the Albion agreed fees for the transfers of both Rafael Dwamenaa from FC Zurich and Renato Neto for Ghent, only for both to fail medicals.
In terms of friendlies, pre-season was a bit of a disaster. There were three injury blows as Anthony Knockaert picked up a knock that was due to rule him out for three weeks in a 2-0 win over Fortuna Dusseldorf, Beram Kayal broke a leg as Atletico Madrid won 3-2 at the Amex and Steve Sidwell suffered a back problem which eventually required an operation.
Glenn Murray then compounded things by getting sent off in a 0-0 draw with Gironia. The other friendly results saw a 6-0 win over Crawley Town, a 3-0 win over Southend United and a 1-1 draw at Norwich City with Gross looking particularly impressive, scoring three times.
August 2017
Davy Propper was transfer record breaker number two when he signed for £11m from PSV Eindhoven five days before the start of the season. Chris Hughton couldn’t have asked for a tougher start with Pep Guardiola bringing his cream coloured chinos and his title favourites Manchester City to the Amex, but the Albion performed credibly in a 2-0 defeat with Sergio Aguero and a bullet Lewis Dunk header netting for City.
If that sort of dogged defensive display against millions of pounds worth of attacking talent looked like it boded well for the season ahead, then a 2-0 loss at Leicester City in which the Foxes went ahead inside of 90 seconds bought everyone back to earth.
Hughton’s response? Spending another new record amount of £13m on Jose Izquierdo from Club Brugge and he got off to an interesting start by uploading a photo of himself in the Lanes standing next to some “CPFC” grafitti. The Colombian wasn’t the only new arrival; Ezequiel Schelotto arrived for £2.5m from Sprorting Lisbon and Hughton attempted to address the questions about whether Ryan was up to the Premier League after two poor opening performances by signing Tim Krul from Newcastle.
August ended with a 1-0 win over Barnet through James Tilley’s first goal and a first Premier League point in a 0-0 draw at Watford, who played for over an hour with 10 men after Miguel Britos was dismissed for a horror challenge on Knockaert.
August Record: P4, W1, D1, L2, F1, A4
Results: 0-2 Man City H, 0-2 Leicester A, 1-0 Barnet H, 0-0 Watford A
League Position at End of Month: 17th
September 2017
There was mass panic when the Albion failed to sign a striker as the transfer window shut, which was understandable given we’d failed to score a Premier League goal in our first three games. Those worries were calmed slightly as Gross got off the mark with a brace in our first league win of the campaign, a 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion with Tomer Hemed netting the third.
The 100-miles-apart-South-Coast-Derby saw our terrible record at Bournemouth continue as, despite Solly March opening the scoring, we suffered a 2-1 defeat and in one of those cup draws that commentators call “quirky” but we’d describe as “bloody irritating”, there was another trip to the Vitality Stadium five days later for a 1-0 League Cup defeat in extra time.
Controversy abounded on that occasion as the “sold out” away end was in reality only half full as supporters bought tickets despite having no intention on traveling simply to boost their loyalty points total, leading to a stern statement from Paul Barber in which he set a world record for the number of times the word “harvest” could appear in one letter.
The month ended with a second win of the season, Hemed scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Newcastle United. The Israeli’s joy was short-lived however as he was banned for three games retrospectively after television cameras picked up a deliberate stamp on DeAndre Yedlin, meaning that with Murray and Baldock both injured, we’d enter October with no fit or available strikers. Suddenly, that lack of forward signing was back on the agenda.
September Record: P4, W2, D0, L2, F5, A4
Results: 3-1 West Brom H, 1-2 Bournemouth A, 0-1 Bournemouth A, 1-0 Newcastle H
League Position at End of Month: 13th
October 2017
The lack of forward options meant that Brown was asked to lead the line as a false nine away at Arsenal with the result being a 2-0 defeat to the Gunners in which they didn’t get out of second gear and we hardly left our own half.
For 89 minutes against Everton a fortnight later, the Albion were in control and looked to be heading to a third win of the season thanks to Knockaert opening the scoring with only 10 minutes or so left to play. That was until Bruno went temporarily brain dead, elbowing Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the head in the box in the 92nd minute when there was absolutely zero sign of any danger. England’s record goalscorer Wayne Rooney duly converted the resulting penalty to earn the Toffees a share of the spoils.
We bounced back from that late heartbreak with one of the most impressive performances of the season, hammering West Ham United 3-0 in front of nearly 60,000 at the London Stadium. Murray netted twice for his first goals of the season with Jose Izquierdo scoring a brilliant distance effort for his first for the club.
October was rounded off with another home draw, Murray’s equaliser just before the hour mark cancelling out Steve Davis’ early goal for visitors Southampton in a game in which both Hughton and his opposite number Mauricio Pellegrino could have shaken hands on a draw after the leveller given that neither side was willing to take a chance to win the game.
October Record: P4, W1, D2, L1, F5, A4
Results: 0-2 Arsenal A, 1-1 Everton H, 0-3 West Ham A, 1-1 Southampton H
League Position at End of Month: 12th
November 2017
November kicked off with the Albion’s second and what would turn out to be final away victory of the season, Murray continuing his attempt to score with every single part of his anatomy by using his thigh to net the only goal of the game at Swansea City.
Our record of putting in disappointing performances in games following the international break continued as Stoke City left the Amex with a point in a 2-2 draw with Gross and Izquierdo netting the Brighton goals.
That extended our unbeaten run to five games and it should’ve been six at Old Trafford where the Albion were the better side against Manchester United but failed to take any of the numerous chances created, instead falling to a Lewis Dunk own goal.
Jose Mourinho said afterwards that Brighton were the toughest side his team had faced so far which should have been a real boost going into the first eagerly anticipated derby match of the season with Crystal Palace.
As it was, the game was a dull affair with both teams prioritising not losing over winning in a 0-0 draw. The only fireworks came off the pitch, quite literally in the away end, as ticketless Palace fans stormed the turnstiles and let flares off inside the Amex in an embarrassing evening for Sussex Police, who then tried to claim that the some of the visiting fans had turned up with knifes and knuckledusters.
November Record: P4, W1, D2, L1, F3, A3
Results: 1-0 Swansea A, 2-2 Stoke H, 0-1 Man United A, 0-0 Palace H
League Position at End of Month: 10th
December 2017
Every Albion fan with at least half a working brain cell knew we were due a hammering at some point from one of the big boys and it duly arrived when Liverpool visited the Amex at the start of December, the Reds blowing the Albion away on their way to a 5-1 win with Murray netting the consolation from the spot. Dunk also netted his third own goal of the campaign, taking his record to two in two now for Liverpool which is better than even Mo Salah.
We were simply unable to deal with their pressing game, which was bad news for the following weeks trip to Huddersfield Town who also press. That game at the John Smith’s Stadium resulted in the worst performance of the season and a 2-0 defeat as some slack marking from crosses allowed Steve Mouine to score twice for the Terriers.
It was defeat by the same score four days later at Wembley Stadium where Hughton rested some of his big names, seemingly accepting that defeat to Tottenham Hotspur was a foregone conclusion. That decision was vindicated with a much improved performance in a 0-0 draw with high flying Burnley in which Murray missed a penalty and a week later, we finally managed to score from open play for the first time in over nine hours as Gross netted to vanquish Watford 1-0.
Boxing Day saw a 2-0 defeat at reigning champions Chelsea with both the Blues goals coming early in the second half while the fixtures computer kindly gave us Newcastle United away on New Years Eve Eve, where a string of unbelievable saves from Ryan earned a 0-0 draw.
December Record: P6, W4, D1, L0, F10, A4
Results: 1-5 Liverpool H, 0-2 Huddersfield A, 0-2 Spurs A, 0-0 Burnley H, 1-0 Watford H, 0-2 Chelsea A, 0-0 Newcastle A
League Position at End of Month: 12th
