Brighton & Hove Albion 2020-21 Season Review: December

December 2020 was easily the worst month of Brighton & Hove Albion’s 2020-21 season and arguably the lowest point of Graham Potter’s two years in charge.

No victories from six matches including against to-be-relegated Fulham and Sheffield United. Baffling team selections and tactics which made the whole Potter Selection Roulette Wheel suddenly seem like less of a joke

Two wins from the opening 16 games of the season represented the Albion’s worst ever start to a top flight campaign. There was an even more unwanted piece of history when a new club-record of 13 home games without a win was set. You know it’s bad when you are eclipsing the feats of Damien Hilton, Michael Mahoney-Johnson and the Brighton Class of 1998.

In typical Albion style, they managed to rack all these achievements up in the month when fans were allowed back to the Amex. 2,000 were present for two December home games against Southampton and Sheffield United, the only point in the 2020-21 season other than the final home game against Manchester City that Brighton supporters could attend matches. We may have been away for nine months, but the Seagulls were still doing their best to ruin every weekend.

What made December particularly troubling is that there was a very noticeable drop off in performances. Disappointing results over the past three months could at least be put down to bad luck, poor refereeing or the lack of finishing touch up front.

Not anymore. Gone was the “Keep playing well and results will match” line; Brighton were now playing badly and getting bad results with Potter’s only answer seeming to be telling everyone that he would learn and take the positives.

There seemed to have been precious little learning going on prior to Southampton rocking up at the Amex for the 97 Miles Apart South Coast Derby.

Conceding goals from set pieces had been a frequent occurrence throughout the 2020-21 season with Brighton kicking off December by offering the Saints one such gift as the visitors ran out 2-1 winners.

A bright first half performance had seen Brighton once again squander several good opportunities. The Albion did manage to take the lead, Pascal Gross scoring from the penalty spot to make it two goals and two assists since Potter belatedly put him in the starting XI at the beginning of November.

The sides went in at half time level thanks to some typically woeful defending from a free kick with seconds of the first half remaining. James Ward-Prowse swung over a fine delivery and Jannik Vestergaard scored a towering head to make it 10 goals conceded from set pieces in 11 league matches.

Throwing away a lead so close to the break had a detrimental impact on the Albion and whatever Potter said at half time had no effect in terms of lifting the players as Brighton were woeful in the second half.

Nobody could have any complaints when Southampton found a winner, although VAR did provide a convenient scapegoat having helped the Seagulls to four points in the previous two matches against Liverpool and Aston Villa.

Solly March tangled with Kyle Walker-Peters on the edge of the box and after referee David Coote initially awarded a free kick, the video assistant took another look.

They somehow concluded that the foul had taken place inside of the area and so up stepped Danny Ings to slam home the resulting penalty to make it Brighton 1-2 Southampton.

The trip to Leicester City six days later was over as a contest before half time and in more brutal fashion than an execution in North Korea.

Potter sprung something of a surprise by dropping Adam Webster and switching to a back four. It certainly caught the Foxes out and Brighton made a good start at the King Power.

Had Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Danny Welbeck done better with relatively straightforward opportunities that were easily repelled by Kasper Schmeichel, who knows how different thing might have turned out in the city which gave us Walkers crisps?

Once Brendan Rodgers reacted to Potter’s surprise formation with 10 minutes played though it was utter carnage. Leicester began attacking Dan Burn with the result being three unanswered goals in the space of 14 first half minutes, two from James Maddison and one via Jamie Vardy.

Potter merely looked on bewildered at what was happening, as if he were a man who had just lost his dog in Preston Park rather than a highly-paid professional football manager. He was unable or unwilling to do anything to combat Rodgers’ switch to 4-2-3-1. It was a painful way to spend a Sunday night.

Clearly something had to change for the trip to Fulham. That something was Maty Ryan paying for the Albion’s questionable goals against record and a poor performance at the King Power, where he should have done better with at least two of the goals.

Brighton fans were certainly keen to let Ryan know, with comments on Twitter in the aftermath of Leicester 3-0 Brighton ranging from Ryan being shit to supporters telling him to get out of the club.

In West London three days later, Ryan was replaced by rookie third choice goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. Sanchez had been briefly seen in November’s 2-1 defeat at Spurs having never even been on the bench before. He then completely disappeared again for the intervening four matches when Ryan returned.

At Craven Cottage, the 23-year-old Spaniard kept a clean sheet and made a couple of impressive saves to prevent Brighton slipping to defeat against one of the few sides below them in the table.

Potter confirmed in his post match interview that Sanchez was now his number one and Jason Steele his number two, leaving Ryan out in the cold.

A few days after the Fulham game and Ryan went from being cold to freezing his bollocks off when the news leaked that Potter had told him to find another club in January.

It was an extraordinary fall from grace for Ryan, who had been untouchable in the Albion goal throughout the Premier League era. There can be little doubting that it was an inspired decision by Potter, however.

Once the nightmare of December was out of the way, Brighton had the second best defensive record in the second half of the 2020-21 Premier League season with Sanchez fast tracked into the Spain squad for Euro 2020 (in 2021) as a result.

Having failed to win against 18th placed Fulham, the pressure was now on to beat 20th placed Sheffield United at the Amex. The Blades arrived having recorded the worst ever start to a top flight season in English football history, putting just one point on the board from 13 matches.

Long-standing Albion fans could see exactly what was going to happen, even when Brighton were handed an unexpected advantage of playing with an extra man for an hour against the poorest team in the Premier League after John Lundstram’s first half red card.

Brighton should have been behind before Lundstram produced his wild lunge on Joel Veltman, Sanchez marking his home debut with a stunning one handed save at full stretch from a David McGoldrick free kick.

At half time, Potter replaced Veltman with Alireza Jahanbakhsh whilst Danny Welbeck sat on the bench. The Albion needed a goal against the side bottom of the table playing with only 10 men and yet Potter kept his best striker amongst the sustitutes.

It was a decision greeted with all round bafflement, not least by Warren Aspinall on BBC Radio Sussex who said: “That’s not the change I would have made, but then again I am not the manager.” It was not just the patience of supporters wearing thin with Potter at this point.

The second half was even worse than the first from a Brighton point of view. Sideways pass followed by sideways pass followed by sideways pass followed by sideways pass… playing right into the hands of United, who had set up in two banks of four with Oliver Burke up top on his own to try and defend their way to a second point of the season.

Predictable disaster then struck when United took the lead on the hour mark. McGoldrick found Jayden Bogle and he beat Sanchez via a deflection off Adam Webster.

Brighton now had 27 minutes to find an equaliser and avoid the embarrassment of becoming only the second side to lose to the Blades in the first 14 games of the 2020-21 season.

Welbeck was finally introduced and on came 6’1 target man Andi Zeqiri for his Albion debut… as a left wing back. That Potter Selection Roulette Wheel was working overtime going into Christmas.

It was Welbeck who eventually spared the Seagulls’ blushes. Moments after Aaron Connolly produced a worthy winner of the WAB Miss of the Season Award by heading high and wide when presented with an open goal from two yards out, Dat Guy brought a Webster header down on his chest and fired clinically past Aaron Ramsdale.

Brighton nearly used their get out of jail free card in the final seconds. Welbeck saw a header cleared off the line but only as far as Jahanbakhsh, who just had to guide the ball into the empty goal from thee yards out. Instead, he contrived to hit the post in a miss that was nearly as astonishing as Connolly’s.

Questions were now starting to be asked about Potter following Brighton 1-1 Sheffield United, and not just by those fans prone to hysterical reactions by the slightest setbacks.

If Brighton could not beat a Blades side who had not won a game in any competition by the last week of December and been defeated 12 times out of 13 prior to coming to Sussex, where exactly was the 2020-21 season going?

Brighton did at least improve for the trip to the surprise packages of the 2020-21 season West Ham United, a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium in the Albion’s penultimate game of December feeling simultaneously like one point gained at the same as being two points dropped.

On the one hand, drawing away from home against a side eyeing up Champions League football was an excellent result. Yet on the other hand, West Ham were awful in the first half. Brighton were in total control yet failed to make their domination count – again – leading by only one goal going into the break.

That came via Neal Maupay, scoring for the first time since October. The French striker did something rare for a Brighton player in taking a first time shot on the turn and he was rewarded for his boldness, catching Lukasz Fabianski by surprise as the ball whistled into the back of the net.

Two significant things happened at half time. Adam Lallana limped out of the action having been the main reason Brighton enjoyed such control. He made two key passes, three successful tackles, 38 accurate passes and had 54 touches.

Steve Alzate replaced Lallana at the break, recording zero key passes, 15 accurate passes and having just 25 touches. Alzate gave the ball away cheaply twice in dangerous areas within the first 10 minutes he was on the pitch.

To compound the problem of losing Lallana, Potter was again caught out by changes made by an opposition manager. This time it was a double half time substitution from David Moyes which led to the Hammers being much the better side at the start of the second half.

The hosts equalised when substitute Andriy Yarmolenko swung over a cross which Sanchez failed to gather. None of the three defenders in blue backing their flailing goalkeeper up were able to react, leaving Ben Johnson to level things up.

To be fair to the Albion, they showed great character to regain the lead via a surprisingly successful short corner routine. Leandro Trossard and the outstanding March worked a little move which saw March swing the ball over.

In defending nearly as bad as Brighton’s, Tomas Soucek only succeeded in placing his clearing header straight into the midriff of Dunk who reacted well to smash the loose ball into the back of the net.

Brighton had 20 minutes now to see the game out and pick up three vital points. That they failed to do so was once again because of defending which would make an Under 10s team blush.

With eight minutes remaining, Aaron Cresswell took a corner from the right hand side. It looked like the perfect delivery to defend; straight into an area in the six yard box where Dunk, Webster, Burn and Welbeck were standing.

Even when for some unknown reason none of those four players over six feet tall felt like heading clear, the 6’6 figure of Sanchez should have been eating balls like that for breakfast.

Nobody cleared, Sanchez remained glued to his line and Ben White failed to mark Soucek, allowing him a free header from front and centre of the goal. Six players all bearing some culpability for conceding was in its own way quite impressive.

And yes, that was another goal from a set piece. Edward Scissorhands was a special December treat showing on Channel 4 at the same time as West Ham 2-2 Brighton, and you would honestly rather have a hand job from Ed than watch the Albion try and use zonal marking as they did in the first half of the 2020-21 season.

December ended with the visit of Arsenal to the Amex, a game Brighton had to win to avoid setting all manner of unwanted club and Premier League records.

The good news was that on paper, the Gunners appeared there for the taking. They were actually below Brighton in the table, in pretty bad form themselves and with pressure building on Mikel Arteta.

Potter therefore decided to make wholesale changes, effectively naming a Carbao Cup side. Bernardo, Davy Propper and Alexis Mac Allister all came in for their first starts of the season and Jahanbakhsh his second. March and White – arguably the two best Brighton players of the 2020-21 season up to December – both dropped out.

Worst of all was that Potter willingly chose to go into the game with no recognised centre forward. Welbeck, Connolly, Zeqiri and Maupay all sat on the bench for a match which Brighton could have won as midfielder Mac Allister and winger Jahanbakhsh were paired together up front.

It was the sort of team selection that a university student makes on Football Manager at 3am after a hard night on the magic mushrooms. Arsenal took advantage, winning 1-0 without really ever getting out of second gear.

The only goal arrived in the second half, Bakary Sako outpacing Burn to deliver into the box where Webster allowed Alexandre Lacazette too much time and space to take a touch and beat Sanchez at his near post.

Lacazette had only been on the pitch for 21 seconds, an inspired substitution from Arteta. Potter meanwhile threw on March, Maupay and Trossard in favour or Propper, Mac Allister and Jahanbakhsh.

Brighton therefore ended up playing out the final 20 minutes with Bernardo as a central midfielder alongside Yves Bissouma. Even a player in as good form as Bissouma – a worthy winner of WAB December Player of the Month – could not do much when put in that situation.

The full time whistle brought down the curtain on a pretty horrible 2020. No Albion side had ever won just once at home in a year, setting a new club record.

There was a Premier League record too as one victory from 17 attempts was the lowest total of victories of any club who completed a calendar year in the division.

Failing to beat Arsenal broke the Brighton club record of 12 home games without victory, set by Steve Gritt’s side in the 1997-98 campaign. One can only imagine how supporters would have reacted if the Amex had been full every home game and treated to such dirge.

Luckily for Potter, a terrible December in a 2020-21 season that was turning into another battle against relegation for Brighton was being played out behind closed doors.

Even so, he needed to find a way to turn things around in the new year. As Burnley, Fulham and West Brom began to improve, so the Albion were going backwards – making the prospect of trips to Luton Town and Barnsley in the 2021-22 season very real.

December 2020 record: P6 W0 D3 L3 F4 A9
Results: 1-2 v Southampton (H), 0-3 v Leicester (A), 0-0 v Fulham (A), 1-1 v Sheffield United (A), 2-2 v West Ham (A), 0-1 v Arsenal (H)
League position at the end of the month: 17th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Yves Bissouma