WeAreBrighton.com 2018-19 Season Review: August
After a summer of unprecedented spending, hopes were high among Albion supporters as August rolled around and we prepared to enter the 2018-19 Premier League season.
Over £50m had been lavished on the likes of Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Yves Bissouma, Bernardo, Martin Montoya, David Button and Dan Burn.
Throw in some shrewd free transfers like Leon Balogun and Jason Steele and there was cause for optimism that not only could the Albion achieve their minimum target of avoiding relegation, but they should also better the previous campaign’s 15th place and finish and points tally of 40.
In order to do so, there were two main areas that the Albion would clearly need to improve. The first was away form, having scored just 10 times on the road and registered only two wins in 2017-18. The second was defending from set pieces – an astonishing 22 goals had been conceded from corners and free kicks over the course of the year.
Things didn’t get off to the best of starts then at Watford on the opening day of the campaign. The season was only 40 minutes old when Roberto Pereyra scored from a corner, the Hornets’ midfielder being left completely free to volley home just before half time in yet another away game in which Brighton failed to score.
In fact, we didn’t even manage to have a noteworthy shot on target all afternoon. Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster was so underemployed that he could’ve read the entirety of War and Peace and written a 10,000 word review of it, invented a flying car and developed a way to time travel.
Pereyra doubled his and the Hornet’s tally in the second half when he was allowed to trundle into the box unchallenged and bent an effort past Maty Ryan.
Without the interventions of Ryan, it could have been much worse for the Albion. He pulled off a smart stop in the first half to deny Andre Gray his traditional goal against Brighton and somehow kept out a Troy Deeney effort via a brilliant two handed save.
Hughton told the BBC afterwards that he wasn’t sure what had happened. “We have some new signings but the team that played today was the same as last season, so no excuses.”
Given that Bernardo was the only new face to start, we could tell Chris exactly what happened. It was virtually the same side that played in the 2017-18 season delivering exactly the same sort of performance – an away defeat with no goals scored whilst conceding from a corner.
That result at Vicarage Road deflated a lot of that pre-season optimism. With the previous season’s top four to come in the next six fixtures, there was genuine concern that failing to take anything from Watford could leave the Albion cut adrift by the end of September.
We needn’t have worried. After all it was only Manchester United up next and we appear to have their number at the Amex.
United had been the visitors in the final home game of the previous season back in May, Pascal Gross’ header giving the Albion a 1-0 win which secured Premier League safety.
Fast forward three months to August and this was an even more impressive victory over the Red Devils. Much of the talk afterwards centred around how poor United were and whether third season syndrome was affecting Jose Mourinho again – turns out it was – but for however bad United played, Brighton were brilliant.
Three goals in 19 minutes at the end of the first half blew United away. Glenn Murray kicked things off when he produced the deftest of flicks to completely bamboozle David De Gea.
It was improvisation at it’s very, very best and a goal we’d be seeing replayed countless times had it been scored by a 21-year-old wonder kid from Brazil rather than a 34-year-old from just south of Carlisle.
The second arrived just two minutes later, eventual August Player of the Month winner Shane Duffy firing home after a game of pinball broke out in the box. Brighton produced their normal party trick by letting Romelu Lukaku pull one back from a corner but the two goal advantage was soon restored when Eric Bailly brought down Gross in the box. The German dusted himself down to take the resulting penalty which De Gea got his legs to but couldn’t quite divert over the bar.
World Cup winner Paul Pogba momentarily escaped the pockets of Dale Stephens and Davy Propper to net a penalty of his own in second half injury time for United’s second, but it was the Albion who held on for another famous win over United.
What made the result more impressive was that Lewis Dunk had hobbled off after 20 minutes, meaning a first taste of Premier League action for Balogun. He certainly didn’t look out of place whilst Hughton’s faith in last season’s players paid off handsomely on this occasion as Montoya was the only one of the new signings to start, replacing the injured Bruno.
Such a domineering, free scoring performance against United showed that perhaps progress was being made. There was further evidence of that a week later away at Anfield.
Liverpool had beaten the Albion by an aggregate score of 9-1 in the previous season and if anything, that flattered Brighton.
The Reds had an even more formidable line up this time around and yet the Albion were unfortunate not to take a point from under the noses of the Kop. It was only a superb second half stop from the world’s second most expensive goalkeeper that meant we left Anfield empty handed.
Without Allison, Gross’ excellent header would’ve meant a point. Had Simon Mignolet or Loris Karius – either with or without a concussion – been in goal, then Gross is scoring that.
Allison’s save was one of only two moments of real quality on show. The other was unfortunately the goal that gave Liverpool all three points, Mo Salah managing to stand up for one to place the ball perfectly between Ryan’s outstretched hand and the post.
Montoya, Balogun and Bissouma all began that game but it was only with August’s final game, the visit of Southampton in the second round of the Carabao Cup, that Hughton unleashed the majority of his shiny new signings from the start.
The result was the most expensive starting XI in Brighton history, a side which had cost £62m to assemble. And despite all that expansive talent, it was a journeyman striker who always seemed to score against us in League One and the Championship who proved to be the match winner.
Charlie Austin’s 88th minute goal was the only one of the game and his sixth in seven matches against the Albion for four different clubs across three different competitions – Swindon Town in League One, Burnley and Queens Park Rangers in the Championship and now Southampton in the League Cup, eliminating the Albion in the process.
Not that anybody was too bothered. Victory over United and pushing Liverpool so close seemed to justify that pre season belief that this could be a good season for the Albion, leaving the Watford disappointment as a fading memory already.
More tough tests lay ahead, but it was a pleasing start. Paul Barber was also a happy man, with the club confirming that nobody had been brought their own sandwiches into Dick’s Bar. The Albion’s CEO’s 127 emails on the subject and threats of punishment by death for any transgressors throughout the summer appearing to have worked.
August 2018 record: P4 W1 D1 L1 F3 A5
Results: 0-2 v Watford A, 3-2 v Manchester United H, 0-1 v Liverpool A, 0-1 v Southampton H
League position at the end of the month: 12th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Shane Duffy
