2019-20 Season Review: November
November was a strange month for Brighton & Hove Albion in their 2019-20 season. The Seagulls hit the dizzy heights of eighth in the Premier League table at the beginning of the month, awarded Graham Potter a new six-year deal after just four league wins at the helm and subsequently failed to win a game again until mid-December.
In fact, after putting pen to paper on his new contract, Potter delivered just two victories in 19 stretching through until June and Project Restart.
It was months of poor form that saw Brighton dragged into the relegation scrap and led to questions being asked about whether Potter was the right man for the job, especially as it was a worse run than the two wins in 18 which resulted in Chris Hughton getting the sack.
Had you suggested such a barren spell was coming after Norwich City were vanquished 2-0 at the Amex in November’s opening game then you would have been laughed out of Falmer.
Everything seemed right in the world when a woeful Canaries side were easily dispatched. Sixth spot and Europa League qualification was just one point away while fourth place and the Champions League was within five points. Not only that, but Brighton sat above Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur with a third of the season nearly completed.
The main talking point following the win over Norwich – other than the visa requirements to get into Azerbaijan – surrounded Jake Humphrey’s ill-advised tweet from the previous April.
Brighton had bored their way to a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United, after which the BT Sports presented posted “Having watched Brighton today, and I know I’m not impartial, but you really should be pleased about the prospect of an expansive, exciting, ambitious Norwich team full of home-grown talents joining the Premier League”.
Talk about speaking nonsense. Norwich were so ‘expansive’ at the Amex that Maty Ryan could have brought a chair onto the pitch, sat down and watched four episodes of Home and Away on catch up given that they didn’t have a shot on target all afternoon.
The Canaries were so ‘exciting’ that the first hour was the most boring 60 minutes of football we had seen all season.
The only thing of note which happened was the stadium WiFi going down with impeccable timing; in September, Brighton announced that the Amex would go cashless after the 2019-20 season and here we were in November with a failed signal which meant in some sections of the ground, people could not buy a £3.20 bags of Starburst because the internet wasn’t working. Classic Brighton.
Norwich’s ‘ambition’ saw them have 42% possession, which they did nothing with save for hitting Ryan’s crossbar in the first half and as as for ‘home-grown’, five of the Albion’s 11 were English with Lewis Dunk, Aaron Connolly and Steve Alzate having come through the development system. The Canaries had two Englishmen in their side and two players who had come through their academy.
For the second week running, it was Leandro Trossard’s introduction to the action which won Brighton the match. Trossard had come off the bench to inspire the Albion to victory in the previous week’s 3-2 win over Everton and he repeated the trick against Norwich.
He was introduced on 59 minutes and by 68, he had the ball in the back of the net after stealing in between Ben Godfrey and Tom Trybull to guide Martin Montoya’s low cross past former Albion man Tim Krul.
Trossard turned provider for the Albion’s second, whipping in a dangerous free kick which his fellow substitute Shane Duffy stretched to divert into the back of the Norwich net. Duffy had been introduced after Adam Webster limped off injured early in the first half.
The Albion went to Manchester United next in confident mood. Brighton had never won at Old Trafford before and they unlikely to get a better chance – Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s men had reached November with just three Premier League wins to their name in 2019-20.
Tactically, Potter got it badly wrong on the day. Playing a high defensive line and an aggressive press against a United front three containing the pace of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford resulted in the Albion being absolutely all over the place.
Without Ryan making five or six brilliant saves, United could have racked up a far bigger victory than the 3-1 which they managed. To make matters worse, the host’s first two goals initially went down as own goals to Dale Stephens and Davy Propper, although they were eventually credited to Andreas Pereira and Scott McTominay.
Lewis Dunk, Dan Burn, Martin Montoya, Stephens and Propper were all booked as the only answer that Brighton had was to foul United. Potter changed approach at half time, throwing on Solly March and Glenn Murray with Pascal Gross joining the action 14 minutes after the restart and that did at least yield an improvement.
Dunk headed home a Gross delivery to make it 2-1 but hopes of a comeback were extinguished within 120 seconds when United went up the other end and Rashford scored their third.
Ryan came to the fore in the final 30 minutes, denying Rashford twice, Daniel James and debutant full back Brandon Williams to go with a string of impressive first half stops.
Brighton were again indebted to their goalkeeper when Leicester City – Liverpool’s closest pursuers in the first half of the 2019-20 season – came to the Amex in the third game of November.
Ryan’s two best saves against the Foxes saw him react superbly to push a Jamie Vardy header over the bar and then get a vital touch on Pere’z shot to turn it around the post.
He even managed to save a Vardy spot kick, although VAR decided that Vardy should get another go at it. The Premier League’s top scorer duly dispatched the second attempt to put Leicester 2-0 ahead with eight minutes remaining.
Leicester’s first had come 20 minutes earlier after a scintillating counter attack was finished off by Ayoze Perez. Brighton meanwhile failed to register a single shot on target – even Southampton had managed to force Kasper Schmeichel into a couple of saves when they were beaten 9-0 at home by the Foxes a month previously.
Things didn’t get any easier for Brighton in their final game of November away at eventual 2019-20 champions Liverpool. The Reds had not dropped a point at Anfield all season, so a home win was a result that any accumulator calculator would have recommended.
Those who did put Liverpool in their coupon got it right – but only just. The Albion gave Jurgen Klopp’s side a real fright and on another day might even have left with all three points.
Both of Liverpool’s goals in their 2-1 success were preventable as Virgil van Dijk was gifted two free headers. At the other end, Dunk should really have had a hat-trick as he squandered two gilt-edged opportunities.
The Brighton captain did get on the score sheet with a brilliant piece of thinking which saw him beat Adrian with a quickly taken free kick.
Adrian had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes following Alisson’s red card for deliberate handball outside the box, a necessary sacrifice given Trossard seemed certain to score.
You know Liverpool are rattled when Klopp’s good guy persona slips. He was raging about Dunk’s free kick afterwards just a few months after he had been full of praise for Trent Alexander-Arnold taking a similar set piece quickly to get the Redmen a goal against Barcelona in the Champions League.
A superb example of double standards from Klopp, who clearly knew that his side had been lucky to escape with all three points and was desperately trying to deflect away from that.
Brighton ended the month having slipped down to 15th in the Premier League table. Talk of Europe was now being replaced with concerning looks over the shoulder at a relegation zone which was beginning to edge perilously closer.
There was no surprise as to the identity of our WeAreBrighton.com November Player of the Month as Ryan won the award by an absolute landslide for his efforts in ensuring Brighton conceded ‘only’ seven goals.
A December with fixtures against Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Spurs, Chelsea and surprise Champions League chasers Sheffield United did not appear to offer much respite either. Dreams of Thursday nights in Belarus and Albania were on hold for now.
November 2019 record: P4 W1 D0 L3 F4 A7
Results: 2-0 v Norwich (H), 1-3 v Manchester United (A), 0-2 v Leicester (H), 1-2 v Liverpool (A)
League position at the end of the month: 15th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Maty Ryan
