Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: December
Never doubt the power of a last minute equaliser. Brighton won only once in December but the month ended up feeling hugely successful thanks to three of the five matches featuring the late goals which became the Albion’s trademark in 2021-22.
That all three of those memorable conclusions to games came on the road was in keeping with what had happened over the previous two months.
Whereas the Albion were a joy to watch away from home, their form at the Amex had left a lot to be desired. That manifested itself in the controversial circumstances in which November had ended.
A 0-0 draw with The Leeds United had led to a small smattering of boos at the full time whistle. These made headlines and caused Graham Potter to offer a stinging rebuke, saying that he needed “a Brighton history lesson” to understand why fans were jeering his side who sat eighth in the Premier League table.
The answer to that was because Seagulls supporters were frustrated by the same old story playing out every week. Against the 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up, that read 20 shots from the Albion, zero goals, one point.
Form was not the only stark contrast between watching Brighton home and away in the 2021-22 – the support the team received differed greatly as well, something that was noticeable as December kicked off with a trip to West Ham.
Four days after the booing and the request for a history lesson, Potter and his players were given a heroes reception after drawing 1-1 at the London Stadium thanks to the first of those late levellers.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, nothing is certain in life except death, taxes and West Ham not beating Brighton. The Irons led for 84 minutes following Tomas Soucek heading home a Pablo Fornals corner after Robert Sanchez and Lewis Dunk got themselves into a bit of a state.
Brighton suffered from both fortune and misfortune from that point onwards. The Seagulls were lucky not to fall 2-0 behind midway through the second half.
Sanchez got in another mess from another West Ham corner, resulting in the Albion goalkeeper appealing to the referee for a foul when in reality he had simply missed his punch.
VAR took a look, which must have been to simply appease the goalkeeper and prove he was at fault. It was during this investigation that the ball was found to have brushed the ankle of Michail Antonio stood in an offside position on its way in and so the goal was disallowed.
A ridiculously harsh decision on West Ham but one that looked like having no bearing on that outcome once Brighton found themselves finishing the game with only 10 men.
Jeremy Sarmiento, Adam Webster and Adam Lallana all picked up injuries over the course of the match, with Lallana’s coming after Potter had made all three of his substitutions.
Not many would have given the Albion hope of finding an equaliser whilst playing shorthanded. December though was a month when Brighton showed you could not write off the class of 2021-22 in any situation and they duly levelled the tie in the 89th minute through a piece of individual brilliance from Neal Maupay.
Tariq Lamptey hung a cross into the West Ham box which was behind Le Petite Shithouse Francais. Maupay though showed the sort of flexibility rarely seen outside of circus contortionism, bending his body into an unnatural shape to score a stunning bicycle kick past a flabbergasted Lukasz Fabianski.
The away end went wild as Maupay celebrated with the travelling support through a haze of blue smoke. The euphoria caused by Maupay’s moment of magic made West Ham 1-1 Brighton feel like a victory, to the point where nobody batted an eyelid that the Albion were now nine games without a victory.
That run was extended to 10 in the trip to Southampton. There was some sort of glitch in the matrix at St Mary’s as for the second time in 72 hours, Maupay scored a very, very late equaliser when Brighton were down to 10 men to rescue a 1-1 draw.
There were once more question marks over Sanchez’s role in an opposition goal. His poor kick was returned forward by the head of James Ward-Prowse and Shane Duffy then expected his goalkeeper to come and intercept the danger.
Sanchez though was glued to his line and Duffy’s hesitation allowed Armando Broja to collect the ball, fool Duffy into sliding into a Portsmouth postcode and then beat Sanchez to make it 1-0.
Brighton looked both tired following their midweek exertions and lost without Dunk or Webster, both now injured and facing some time on the sidelines.
When Leandro Trossard was stretchered off after Potter had already introduced Aaron Connolly, Solly March and Jakub Moder, the Albion again found themselves trying to find a leveller with a man disadvantage.
The lengthy delay caused by Trossard’s nasty looking arm complaint led to 10 minutes of stoppage time. It was in the eighth of the 10 that Maupay struck, this time with a goal highlighting the footballing intelligence he rarely gets credited for.
Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy was struggling with injury and so when Moder lined up a free kick on the edge of the Saints box, McCarthy summoned Ward-Prowse to stand on the line.
Maupay took full advantage of the situation, showing great awareness to move closer towards the Southampton goal, knowing that Ward-Prowse was so deep as to be playing him onside.
The extra yards Maupay gained had him perfectly positioned in the event of the ball ending up loose in the box – which is exactly what happened when Moder’s strike cannoned off the wall and the Polish midfielder then sent the rebound back into the area.
With no Southampton player near him, Maupay simply took a touch and fired into the bottom corner. That was the WAB Brighton December Player of the Month award sewn up for Maupay with only two games played, his second accolade of 2021-22 after also winning the vote in September.
Maupay goaded the Saints fans, Duffy went berserk as limbs flew in the away end. Who cared that Brighton had just equalled an unwanted club record of 10 top flight games without a win in amongst all the delirium?
Spurs had been due to provide the third opposition of December a week later, only to be postponed due to a Covid outbreak amongst the Tottenham squad.
This was no bad thing from an Albion point of view, giving the Seagulls three more days to try and get players fit ahead of the Wednesday night visit of Wolves to the Amex.
Those plans were ruined when Brighton then had several players struck down with Covid. No worry, the Premier League would help the Albion out by postponing the fixture, right?
Wrong. Controversially, the game went ahead. It seemed that whilst every other Premier League club was granted time off in the 2021-22 season for Covid reasons, Brighton were not extended the same help even when infections were spiking in December.
Eluding to the selection problems facing Potter, the Albion social media team put out a mock starting XI graphic.
Michel Kuipers was in goal. A back four of Bruno, Guy Butters, Gordon Greer and Gully. Fatboy Slim, Media Intern, Andrew Crofts and Royal Blood made up the midfield. And up front… Bobby Zamora and Glenn Murray.
By full time, Albion fans could only wish that Norman Cook and a bloke in a seven feet tall seagull costume had been on the pitch.
Circumstances might have been against Brighton, but that could not excuse how woeful they played in losing 1-0.
A piece of history was written in the process as the Albion recorded 11 top flight matches in succession without a victory.
Presumably, not the history lesson Potter had in mind when he made those ill-advised comments the previous month.
Wolves had not scored for seven hours before some typically suspect Albion defending from a corner gifted them the only goal of the game.
Yves Bissouma made a hash out of clearing the initial delivery into the box, succeeding only in looping it to Ruben Neves.
The Portuguese playmaker had a worrying amount of time and space to clip a ball back over an Albion defence who were all over the place.
Nobody in blue and white seemed to know whether they should be pushing up to catch Wolves offside or marking an Old Gold opponent.
In the end, they did neither and Neves’ return was clinically volleyed home by Romain Saiss as it finished Brighton 0-1 Wolves.
Covid not only impacted what happened on the pitch against Wolves, but also caused swathes of empty seats in the stands. The record books will forever show an attendance of 30,362 based on tickets sold rather than actually bodies through the turnstiles.
In reality, there were no more than 15,000 there. Brighton fans were not willing to risk catching Covid on December 15th with Christmas 10 days away, thus missing the big day in self isolation just to say “I was at Wolves at home in the 2021-22 season.”
This laid bare the detrimental impact of the Albion’s controversial ticket sharing scheme, whereby season ticket holders were not willing to pay £20 for the right to pass on their seat to a family member who also had to be a £25 MyAlbion+ member.
One sure-fire way of telling that the club know they have cocked up is when Paul Barber writes a 1500 word essay defending whatever the failing idea is, including barely-hidden contempt of any criticism of the Albion.
Trying to claim that everything was hunky dory with the season ticket sharing scheme despite the visual evidence of empty seats was a classic of the genre, made even better by saying any complaints were being done purely for Clickbait.
Not the greatest PR move Barber has ever made, especially when even fewer fans turned up to the Brentford game and supporters began uploading photos of empty seats to Twitter complete with the hashtag #Clickbait.
Those 12,000 or so hardy souls who made the journey to the Amex for that 8pm kick off on Boxing Day against the Bees were at least treated to a first victory since mid-September, as Brighton ran out 2-0 winners.
It was also the first time the Albion had won on December 26th since a 1-0 Championship success over Queens Park Rangers in 2005. Plenty of reasons to crack out the Baileys once everyone got home from the Amex at gone 11pm.
Both goals came inside the final 10 minutes of the first half. Enock Mwepu was the architect of the first, playing a brilliant ball over the top of the Bees defence.
Trossard timed his run to perfection and without breaking stride, volleyed the ball over the head of advancing Brentford goalkeeper Alvaro Fernandez and into the empty net.
Like London Buses, you wait over three months for a goal from open play at the Amex and then another comes along instantly.
Seven minutes later and Lallana linked up with Moder to feed Maupay 30 yards out. The Frenchman advanced a few steps before hitting a scrumptious curler into the top corner to leave Fernandez grasping at thin air.
Two extraordinary match winning saves up the other end in the second half from Sanchez helped secure a much-needed three points to significantly lift the mood around the Albion.
That was clear in the final game of December as Brighton went and played European Champions Chelsea off the park at Stamford Bridge with one of their best performances of the entire 2021-22 season.
Romelu Lukaku gave the Blues a first half lead with a controversial goal, scored after Lukaku had seemed to throw Maupay to the ground as both tussled to reach a Mason Mount corner.
Brighton were totally dominant after that, to the point where Chelsea fans decided to try and help their team waste time. This led to quite simply one of the greatest moments ever to take place at an Albion game in the club’s 121 year existence.
A ball was cleared into the front row, where a home supporter picked it up. Rather than hand it back, he decided to try and boot it towards the back of main stand.
We say try, because all he succeeded in doing was leathering the ball into his own friend’s face from point blank range, much to the delight of everyone in the away end.
Brighton fans had an even bigger reason to cheer when the game ticked into the first minute of stoppage time. The outstanding Marc Cucurella pushed forward and crossed into the box, where Danny Welbeck rose like the proverbial salmon to make it Chelsea 1-1 Brighton.
It was the first goal the Albion had ever scored at Stamford Bridge in an away game against Chelsea. That was a much better history lesson for Potter and Brighton to finish December on as their 2021-22 season began to get back on track.
December 2021 record: P5 W1 D3 L1 F5 A4
Results: 1-1 v West Ham (A), 1-1 v Southampton (A), 0-1 v Wolves (H), 2-0 v Brentford (H), 1-1 v Chelsea (A)
League position at the end of the month: 10th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Neal Maupay
