Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: November
Newcastle United. Aston Villa. The Leeds United. November saw Brighton face three opponents who had spent the 2021-22 season up until that point ensconced in the lower reaches of the Premier League table.
By the end of the month, just two points had been gathered. The fantastic start to the campaign which had the Albion within touching distance of top spot seemed a long time ago and Graham Potter could be found criticising supporters for their reaction to the disappointing autumn form.
November kicked off with the visit of the Saudi Sportswashers to Brighton, who arrived managerless, bottom of the table and without a win so far in 2021-22.
Steve Bruce had been given the chop (not literally with a bone cutter thankfully, unlike how Saudi Arabia treat most people they dislike) a few weeks earlier, leaving Graeme Jones in temporary charge.
With the way Newcastle played in the first half, Jones could consider himself lucky not to have received an invite to the Saudi Embassy and a meeting with a squad of assassins.
Brighton were the better team by miles and should have been out of sight before the interval. Tariq Lamptey came in for his first Premier League start of the season and both he and Leandro Trossard were unplayable in the opening 45 minutes.
They linked up to make the first chance of the game, Lamptey skipping away down the right before crossing to Trossard whose header was kept out by Karl Darlow.
Trossard then swung over a pinpoint corner to be met by the towering head of Shane Duffy but Darlow again was equal to it.
Brighton took the lead midway through the first half from the penalty spot. No prizes for guessing who won the foul, Trossard being caught by Ciaran Clark following a Solly March corner.
Referee David Coote initially gave a goal kick until VAR told him to go and consult the pitch side monitor. Mr Coote duly changed his decision and Trossard stepped up to leather home the penalty.
Said monitor would end up getting used again before Brighton v Newcastle was out, leading to one of the best moments of not just November but arguably the entire 2021-22 season.
Before that though, the Albion squandered several more chances. The talk on the concourses whilst Seagulls supporters sipped on their half time Amex Stadium wine was not whether Brighton would win but by how many goals.
Nobody could have predicted that Brighton would be utterly garbage after the break. It was as if the players also felt the game was won and so they took their foot off the pedal, something you simply cannot afford to do in the Premier League.
Losing the injured Enock Mwepu did not help and Potter replaced him with Alexis Mac Allister. The Albion were punished for their lacklustre return to the field when Isaac Hayden made it Brighton 1-1 Newcastle on 66 minutes.
Matt Ritchie escaped down the left to hang a cross up to the back post. That was nodded down by Clark despite a couple of Brighton players surrounding the Newcastle man and Hayden picked up the pieces, smashing home emphatically.
Things could have become even worse for Brighton right at the death when Robert Sanchez saw red in the other incident involving VAR.
A dangerous combination of another Albion attack breaking down and the Seagulls being a shambles at the back left Callum Wilson with a clear run at goal.
Sanchez came charging 30 yards out, only to see Wilson skip around him. Once that happened, Sanchez had no choice but to bring Wilson down to prevent the Newcastle forward having an empty goal to stride merrily towards.
Still, Mr Coote was not convinced it was a red card until once again told to consult the monitor. Once he had watched the replay and dismissed Sanchez, we were treated to one of the best sights football can offer – an outfield player reluctantly donning the gloves.
Lewis Dunk was the man to take over in goal for the second time in his Albion career, thanks to Potter having used all three of his substitutes.
Newcastle were left with around five minutes to try and find a way past Dunk. Their best opportunity came when Lord Voldemort look-a-like Jonjo Shelvey stood over a free kick 30 yards out. Putting a shot vaguely on target would surely have caused Dunk problems
Yet in a piece of decision making nearly as bad as when he trusted Professor Snape, Voldemort instead clipped the ball harmlessly into the box and the danger passed. Brighton survived but a point at home against bottom of the table opponents was not really good enough.
Aston Villa were the second opponents Brighton faced in November and despite Villa’s disappointing start to 2021-22, it looked a tough game for a number of reasons.
Sanchez being suspended was one. Jason Steele found himself making his Premier League debut at the age of 31 and nobody knew what on earth that would involve.
Would we get the Steele who saved four penalties in a single shootout at Newport County 11 months earlier? Or would we get the Steele who had caused the shootout in the first place by spending 120 minutes looking like a Sunday League goalkeeper still high on MDMA from their Saturday night?
There was also the small matter of Steven Gerrard being in charge of Villa for the first time. The hosts would therefore benefit from the new manager bounce, as well as Villa Park being packed to the rafters and the intimidating atmosphere that could create.
Whilst Gerrard was making his bow as a Premier League manager, Potter was taking charge of his 100th top flight game. He marked it by making two major tactical blunders, the sort of which Albion fans had hoped had been left firmly in the past.
To start with, Potter named no recognised striker against opponents who had lost their previous five games on the bounce.
Trossard as a false nine had worked for Brighton against Manchester City and Liverpool in October 2021, but Villa in November were very different opponents requiring a different approach
The numbers told us what a mistake not having an out-and-out centre forward on the pitch was. Brighton recorded 63 possession and yet registered an xG of only 0.29, the lowest of any top flight club across gameweek 12.
Every time Lamptey or Marc Cucurella went scampering forward and delivered the ball into the box, there was nobody on the end of it.
Lamptey and Cucurella were at the heart of the second tactical blunder from Potter. Villa had been pinned back in their own half for most of the game thanks to the efforts of the Albion’s wing backs, until Potter withdrew Cucurella on 64 minutes and Lamptey on 79.
Within 10 minutes of Lamptey’s departure, Brighton had gone from controlling proceedings at 0-0 to finding themselves 2-0 down. Brighton threw away a valuable point in less time than it took to find the London Euston platform at New Street Station.
Villa’s first goal came from the inexcusable scenario of a Brighton attacking corner. The Albion cocked up their delivery, allowing Ashley Young to collect possession on the edge of the box.
Young charged 40 yards up the pitch unchallenged to slip in Watkins who cut inside Adam Webster and bent an effort past Steele from just inside the area.
As soon as the ball hit the net, the resignation around the away end that it was game over said it all. Fans began departing for an early return to the fantastic Birmingham Christmas Market.
Those departed missed Villa’s second, which arrived five minutes after the first. Webster’s sliding clearance fell straight to Tyrone Mings who produced the sort of clinical finish the Albion had been crying out for to make it Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton.
And as for Steele? He had a great afternoon, making three top class saves without which Brighton could have been on the end of an embarrassing hammering.
Steele could go back back to sitting on the bench, playing golf and drinking in Hove safe in the knowledge it was a job well done.
Sanchez returned the following week for the final game of November as Brighton drew 0-0 at home to The Leeds United.
Forget the result, all anyone could talk about afterwards was the booing. A smattering of Albion fans jeered at full time, a reaction directed towards another game in which the Seagulls had failed to score despite racking up 20 shots across 90 minutes.
The booing was not for the performance, because other than applying the finishing touch it was another promising display befitting of a side who sat eighth in the Premier League table.
And nobody could boo the lofty position Brighton occupied in November of the 2021-22 season, either. Even if it was somewhat unusual that a team who had not won for eight games stretching back to mid-September remained that high in the standings.
The players were not getting booed. They played well. Neither was the manager. The Albion might have been suffering a dip in form but Potter had still forged a team capable on its day of going toe-to-toe with the best clubs in the world.
Rather, it was a noise born from frustration that here we were, yet again ruing the lack of a clinical finisher as had been the case for the past three seasons.
Those boos were because Brighton fans were bored of living out their own personal Groundhog Day. That does not make for a good headline though and so the boos were widely reported as Brighton fans being unhappy with Potter and the Albion “only” sitting in eighth spot.
Potter himself did not help matters, saying he needed a “history lesson” to understand why Albion supporters were booing. The implication was very clear: Shut up because you have never had it so good.
That did at least provide a superb soundbite for the rest of the season. There were history lessons to come for Potter in him overseeing the longest winless top flight run in Albion history of 11 matches and becoming the first Brighton boss to lose six consecutive games in 16 years.
Look beyond the booing and you had a Brighton side who were totally dominant over a The Leeds United outfit who were supposed to be experts in keeping the ball and outrunning their opponents.
The first half was one way traffic and it is no exaggeration to say Brighton could have had the game dead and buried inside of 45 minutes, thanks largely to the efforts once again of Lamptey.
He tore The Leeds United apart to the point where Junior Firpo was booked inside the opening 10 minutes and then substituted at the break to save him from what seemed an inevitable red card.
Lamptey created five first half chances, more than all the other players on the pitch combined. It was 45 minutes of football that confirmed his place as Brighton Player of the Month for November, as well as suggesting the injury problems of last season were now firmly behind him in 2021-22.
The rollcall of honour for Albion players missing opportunities against The Leeds United was longer than a Leonard Cohen song.
Jakub Moder fired over the bar from six yards out completely unmarked, Neal Maupay did the same. Moder hit the bar. Trossard hit the post and had an effort well saved by Ilan Meslier.
Maupay put an astonishing miss wide at the back post. March saw a shot saved and he too hit the post. Moder lifted another effort over the bar.
We were treated to the sight of Instagram influence, DJ and part-time footballer Jurgen Locadia coming on as Potter sought a way to break the deadlock.
One hundred times louder than the boos at full time were the cheers for DJ Jurgen. Some might say they were sarcastic, but it was not long until the Dutch poet was giving the people what they wanted… by falling over his own leg as he went to shoot from a promising position on the edge of the box, resulting in the ball harmlessly rolling towards Meslier.
The Leeds United nearly punished all those misses and it took two superb saves from Sanchez in the final five minutes to ensure Brighton did not slip to defeat.
Webster and Dunk did a very good Chuckle Brothers impression, only to be rescued by an excellent save from the feet of Sanchez after Stuart Dallas got a sight of goal.
The Leeds United had their first corner of the game as a result and from that, Tyler Roberts found himself free. His deflected effort appeared to be creeping into the bottom corner until Sanchez sprung from nowhere to claw it out with an even better stop than his first.
Having failed to beat three strugglers in November, Brighton fans could have been forgiven for wondering where the next win of 2021-22 was coming from.
The answer to that is it was still nearly a month away. But December was about to provide the sort of drama, entertainment and memories that last a lifetime thanks to a much-maligned Maupay and his sudden penchant for last minute goals.
November 2021 record: P3 W0 D2 L1 F1 A3
Results: 1-1 v Newcastle (H), 0-2 v Aston Villa (A), 0-0 v The Leeds United (H)
League position at the end of the month: 8th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Tariq Lamptey
