Brighton & Hove Albion 2022-23 Season Review: September
When Brighton fans of the future look back at the club’s history in 100 years time, September of the 2022-23 season will be seen as one of the most important months in the Albion’s existence despite the fact the Seagulls only took to the field once.
A combination of train strikes cancelling the Crystal Palace home game, the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and an international break meant just 90 minutes of football were completed. But this… this was the month that brought Roberto De Zerbi to Sussex by the Sea.
Playing once was no bad thing, given the disruption that took place behind the scenes at the Amex. The best part of a month without a competitive game meant Brighton could take nine days to appoint De Zerbi and he could have 13 days in the job, all without any Premier League points being on the line.
The sole fixture of September saw Leicester City visit the Amex and a 5-2 win kept Brighton in fourth place in the table after 13 games of the 2022-23 campaign.
After three-and-a-half years of good runs of form mixed in with some pretty horrific results, Graham Potter finally seemed to have cracked it.
The patience Tony Bloom had shown in sticking with his manager through sequences likes six defeats in a row, 14 matches without a home victory and the worst start to a top flight season in Albion history finally seemed to be paying off.
That Leicester game was good. The Foxes were lucky to head back to the East Midlands having conceded only five and lost by just three.
Brighton had never before scored five times in a top flight game. Not that anybody expected that to be the outcome when Leicester took the lead with 51 seconds on the clock through Kelechi Iheanacho.
The Foxes were ahead for all of seven minutes. August Player of the Month Pascal Gross continued his good form into September of the 2022-23 season, sweeping a ball into the box towards Leandro Trossard.
Trossard lofted it back across goal from the opposite side and Solly March headed onto Leicester defender Luke Thomas for an own goal.
Brighton moved 2-1 ahead on the 15 minute mark with what turned out to be the last contribution Enock Mwepu would make in a Albion shirt.
Mwepu gained possession from a sloppy James Maddison pass and charged 40 yards up the pitch unchallenged with the ball. He then fed Moises Caicedo to lash across Danny Ward.
Whilst on international duty three weeks later, Mwepu was diagnosed with a hereditary heart condition which forced his immediate retirement from football. Quite how good The Computer could have become, we will now never know.
Leicester made it 2-2 with 33 minutes played thanks to some woeful Brighton defending. Joel Veltman and Adam Webster were caught miles up the pitch, leaving Lewis Dunk all alone in the Albion defence.
When Youri Tielemans played a 70 yard pass over the top, Dunk inexplicably attempted an overhead kick clearance. The Albion captain completely missed the ball, leaving Patson Daka one-on-one with Robert Sanchez. A goal was the predictable outcome.
The glorious chaos which took place in that first half meant the sides could easily have gone off level at 12-12 rather than 2-2.
Whatever Potter said at half time worked, however, and Brighton took control after the break by regaining their composure. Central to that was Alexis Mac Allister.
First, Mac Allister was denied a Goal of the Season contender by VAR. A Gross free kick was cleared to Mac Allister 25 yards out and his stonking volley from 25 yards without breaking stride crashed into the back of the net, only for Mwepu to be found a millimetre offside. The goal was ruled out despite Mwepu playing zero part in it.
VAR could not deny Brighton their third when Mac Allister fed Trossard and the Vampire of Genk glided past a couple of defenders.
Trossard then won a penalty for the fourth converted by Mac Allister, who did get his wonder goal in stoppage time via a 25 yard free kick crashed into the top corner.
The Seagulls were soaring and although it was only September, Albion fans were starting to dream that something special was going to happen in the 2022-23 season. Not just a repeat of the previous campaign’s top 10 finish, but maybe – just maybe – Europe.
Three days after Brighton 5-2 Leicester and Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel. The ink had barely dried on Tuchel’s P45 when Potter was named as the man Told Boehly wanted to take over at Stamford Bridge.
This seemed strange. Yes, Brighton had lost just two of their past 14 matches and were flying high in the Premier League.
But was Boehly aware that, prior to this good few months of form, Potter had overseen one home win in a calendar year? Or that Brighton had gone three months without scoring a goal at the Amex?
Was he also aware that Potter needed time and patience before he delivered results? The sort of time very few chairman or clubs afforded a manager and certainly not Chelsea, with their self-entitled fan base who will turn if they do not win for three games. Let alone 11, as Albion fans had suffered between September and December 2021.
Within 48 hours of Potter being linked with the job, he was grinning like a Cheshire cat at his unveiling as the new Chelsea manager.
Negotiations had been remarkably swift; but that is probably what happens when someone with money than sense like Boehly waves a five year, £12 million a year contract under your nose.
Potter of course did not just slither off with his team of Billy Reid, Bjorn Hamberg and Kyle Macaulay. He took with him Bruno and Ben Roberts, two stalwarts of the Albion immensely popular for their efforts as coaches and players.
This was not just a head coach leaving to line his bank balance. This was Potter asset stripping Brighton of their entire coaching staff, walking out on a chairman who had supported him through desperate runs when any other would have pulled the sacking trigger.
Potter walking out was hailed a disaster in many quarters. Seasoned Brighton fans knew from experience the club had been here many times before, with managers leaving for apparent bigger and better things.
Micky Adams walked out in October 2001. His replacement Peter Taylor won the Division Two title seven months later. Steve Coppell walked out in October 2003. His replacement Mark McGhee won the playoff final eight months later.
No one man is bigger than the Albion and barring Sami Hyypia, every managerial appointment made by Bloom in his 14 years at the helm had been spot on.
In Tony, we trusted. Indeed, one of the most-read pieces on WAB during September was titled Brighton history shows Potter departure need not be a disaster.
There were plenty of interesting names linked with the job. Kjetil Knutsen from Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt. Palmeiras boss Abel Ferreira looked a good fit for an Albion side with a strong South American theme running through it.
Franck Haise of Lens and Bo Svensson from Mainz saw their odds shortening at various points in the process. And if you take what you read on WAB as gospel, Rita Ora and Anne of Cleeves could have been under consideration.
Rita for the time she tried to inspire the England side before the Euro 2020 final by posting on Instagram a photo sat naked in a chair with just a Three Lions shirt covering herself. Anne for her resilience in outliving Henry VIII, although the fact she had still been dead for over 450 years was one downside.
De Zerbi though was apparently the only one Bloom wanted. And nine days after Potter and co walked out to become rich beyond their wildest dreams, De Zerbi was the man Bloom got.
Brighton being Brighton, the official announcement was made 13 minutes before the nationwide official two minute silence in memory of The Queen.
Somebody had pressed the button without realising that the entire country was meant to be stopping in less than a quarter of an hour to pay tribute to the longest reigning monarch in British history. Needless to say, that made The List.
De Zerbi now had a little under two weeks before the 2022-23 season resumed with his first game in charge as September turned to October, the small matter of Brighton facing Liverpool at Anfield.
Would appointing De Zerbi be a risk because he didn’t know the English game, as Graeme Souness predicted? Had Bloom got it badly wrong when the likes of Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis were available?
Had Potter ruined 2022-23 and all the good work of the previous few months for Brighton by walking out in September? Could De Zerbi rally the Albion players, whose morale must have taken a blow when their head coach and his entire staff abandoned them.
So many questions. And it turned out De Zerbi had all the answers, and then some. Which is why September and those nine days between Potter leaving and De Zerbi arriving were not just some of the most important of the 2022-23 campaign, but in Brighton history.
September 2022 record: P1 W1 D0 L0 F5 A2
Results: 5-2 v Leicester (H)
League position at the end of the month: 4th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Not awarded
