Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: February
Brighton finishing ninth in the Premier League in the 2021-22 season is impressive. Brighton finishing ninth in the Premier League in the 2021-22 season despite a six game losing streak through February and March is frankly astonishing.
So bad was the football and the results during that sequence that it totally overshadows the three month, 11 game winless run the Albion went on between September and December.
With Brighton finishing five points off Europa Conference League qualification, a record-breaking campaign could have become even more spectacular had the Seagulls not endured two barren spells through the autumn and the spring. Something to work on in 2022-23…
Another area that the Albion can look to improve is their FA Cup performance. February kicked off with Brighton exiting the 2021-22 competition at the fourth round stage, beaten by a Spurs side who would go onto be eliminated by Championship outfit Middlesbrough in the next round of the competition.
Potter could not be faulted for the 3-1 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He played a full strength side, continuing his refreshing policy of taking knockout competitions seriously having also named a very good team for the 2-1 extra time victory over West Brom a month earlier.
Rather, it was the players who did not perform to their full abilities. It looked like their minds were on other things, such as a double elimination on The Masked Singer taking place at the exact same time on ITV1 which pushed Spurs v Brighton into the backwater of ITV4.
There was one honourable exception, one player who did not seem more concerned over whether Michael Owen was a singing doughnut – Yves Bissouma.
The midfielder was the best player on the pitch from either side, making it no surprise that Spurs have now signed him for £25 million.
He scored the Albion goal midway through the second half, drifting in from the left and hitting a powerful effort which Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg diverted past Hugo Lloris.
The Spurs captain had earlier denied Bissouma with a superb one handed stop following another deflection, this time off Cristian Romero.
Brighton were already 2-0 down by that point after giving away two goals in the space of 11 first half minutes. Adam Webster stumbled under no pressure to gift possession to Son Heung-min.
Son quickly worked the ball to Harry Kane, Lewis Dunk backed off and that allowed Kane the space he needed to fire into the top right corner.
One became two 11 minutes later. A Brighton foray forward broke down on the edge of the box, from where Spurs launched a lightning quick counter.
Emmerson Royal had an alarming amount of space to canter into down the right. He carried the ball 70 yards up the pitch before hitting a cross which looped off Solly March, over Sanchez and into the back of the net.
Brighton fans could have done with a beer to drown their sorrows during their interval. Unfortunately, there was no chance of that as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was unable to cope with 5,700 Albion fans.
Queues resembled passport control at an airport rather than a state-of-the-art football ground. Suddenly, Brighton’s controversial decision to turn down the full allocation of 9,000 away tickets did look like such a bad idea.
Those sober supporters might have thought that Bissouma netting would give the Albion a way back into the tie. It didn’t.
FA Cup Elimination was confirmed within a couple of minutes of Bissouma scoring as Spurs found a third with more questions to be asked about Brighton’s defending.
Son received possession just inside the Brighton half. Again, the Albion backed off and backed off. When Webster did eventually manage to get close to Son, he simply succeeded in knocking the ball straight past Robert Sanchez and towards his own goal.
Kane could scarcely believe his luck as he slid in to poke the ball over the line, denying Webster what would have been a quite wonderful own goal to make it Spurs 3-1 Brighton.
Time to concentrate on the league as the old cliché goes. That meant Brighton making the trip to Watford, who already seemed doomed to relegation despite the 2021-22 season only being in February.
Traditionally, Watford would be the sort of fixture the Albion would make a total cock up of. Most Seagulls fans heading to the home of Elton John did so expecting Saturday night to not be alright, a defeat against the Hornets seeming the obvious stage-setter for Brighton to then go and win away at Manchester United in midweek.
What we got at Vicarage Road though was a performance nearly as smart as Potter’s outfit. The Brighton boss appeared at Watford dressed for a wedding, saying afterwards that he wore a tie in the dugout out of respect for new Hornets boss Roy Hodgson.
Brighton dominated the first half but despite racking up 71 percent possession, for 44 minutes it looked like they would have nothing to show for it.
Ben Foster kept out efforts from Jakub Moder and Neal Maupay and Pascal Gross and Dunk both headed over wastefully when they should have at least hit the target.
Then with 60 seconds to go until the interval – another 15 minute break without any alcohol due to Watford imposing the American Prohibition Laws of the 1920s on away fans – Maupay produced a piece of magic.
Tariq Lamptey crossed and La Petite Shithouse Française scooped a first-time right footed volley over a dumbfounded Foster and into the top corner.
Hodgson responded to Watford going behind by switching to 4-3-3 and introducing the Hornets’ star man Ismaila Sarr at half time.
The next 20 minutes as a result belonged to the hosts. Sanchez became increasingly busy and Emmanuel Dennis clattered the bar from close range after tricking his way into the area.
Potter made an intervention of his own which turned the tide back in the Albion’s favour. Bissouma had been rewarded for his man-of-the-match showing at Spurs with a place on the bench against Watford.
He was summoned to the action alongside Alexis Mac Allister in place of Danny Welbeck and Gross to bolster Brighton’s midfield.
The tide was turned and Brighton doubled their lead with seven minutes left to play. Moder’s search for a first Premier League continued when he saw an effort deflected inches wide.
Mac Allister swung over the resulting corner and in the subsequent scramble, Webster smashed home at the second attempt as it finished Watford 0-2 Brighton.
Three days later and the Albion went to Old Trafford. It was at the Theatre of Dreams where that six game losing run began.
A good Brighton first half performance was followed by an alarming drop off after the interval, setting the tone for what was to come across the rest of February as the 2021-22 season threatened to go off the rails.
Without the brilliance of David De Gea, the Albion could have gone into half time two or three goals ahead. The pick of De Gea’s saves came when he somehow went full stretch to claw out a powerful Moder header seven minutes before the interval.
Moder had another early effort well blocked by De Gea, who also stood up well to an Alexis Mac Allister scuff. Gross and Bissouma both dragged shots wide when they maybe should have done better.
United were booed off at half time, leaving Ralf Rangnick – who apparently once played in the County League for Southwick – scratching his head.
It took a Brighton gift to swing momentum United’s way five minutes into the second half. Bissouma uncharacteristically gave the ball away, Cristiano Ronaldo was the recipient and he ran at an Albion defence who once again seemed alarmingly keen to back off.
A player as good as CR7 needed no further invitation to shoot, lashing home a powerful low effort from outside the area to put United 1-0 ahead.
Then came the usual assistance United always get from the match officials to beat Brighton. Dunk too long in possession, playing Webster into trouble.
When Webster returned to Dunk, the Albion captain completely miscontrolled the pass, allowing Anthony Elanga to win the ball.
It was sloppy from Dunk followed by clumsiness as he then pulled Elanga to the ground. With Webster covering behind, referee Peter Bankes correctly showed the Brighton captain a yellow card despite United surrounding him and urging the colour to be red.
Showing all the backbone of a jellyfish, Mr Bankes duly listened to Ronaldo and co crying their eyes out and consulted the pitch side monitor. Dunk was dismissed and the Albion had gone from being in control to trailing 1-0 and down to 10 men in the space of 180 seconds.
United were later fined £20,000 for failing to control their players in demanding Dunk be sent off. Scant consolation for Brighton, who went onto lose 2-0 after being hit on the counter in the final seconds.
Mac Allister this time gave the ball away as the Albion pushed for one final sight of De Gea’s goal and Bruno Fernandes broke to wrap up the three points.
Manchester United 2-0 Brighton did at least give us one of the more surreal sights of the campaign with United undertaking a lap of honour at the final whistle.
How the mighty had fallen; the club of Sir Alex Ferguson, 20 time English champions and winners of trebles celebrating victory over 10-man Albion as if they had just won the European Cup. Bless.
Brighton faced Burnley next, who arrived at the Amex rock-bottom of the Premier League having reached the middle of February with only one win to their name in the 2021-22 season.
What followed was one of the worst afternoons of football in the Amex Era. By full time, the 8,000 or so Brighton fans who had not abandoned ship long before the end were openly laughing at their own team’s ineptitude.
The warning signs were there when Burnley earned two corners in the opening five minutes. They hit the bar on 11 minutes before taking a deserved lead with a goal that defied their reputation as a long-ball outfit.
A slick one-touch passing move carved Brighton apart, releasing Connor Roberts to deliver a low cross swept clinically past Sanchez by Wout Weghorst for his first goal in English football.
The Albion managed only one shot across the entire 90 minutes. Duffy was the man to have it, barrelling forward in a style more associated with Webster to hit an effort with his weaker foot with all the power of a piece of soggy bread into the arms of Nick Pope.
Back down the other end and Duffy and Sanchez got involved in a spot of handbags as frustrations began to bubble to the surface.
More damaging than the unedifying sight of two teammates going Stone Cold Steve Austin v The Rock on each other was that the pushing and shoving could be directly linked to the second Burnley goal minutes later.
Weghost turned provider to find Josh Brownhill. Duffy’s attempt to win the ball off Brownhill was atrocious, followed by a weak Brownhill shot that defied Sanchez far too easily after deflecting off Veltman.
A miserable afternoon was complete when it became Brighton 0-3 Burnley with 20 minutes still to play. Jay Rodriguez combined with Weghost to tee up Aaron Lennon, who rolled the years back to 2011 with a stunning effort from just inside the box which flew in via the bar.
“How shit must you be, we’re winning away,” sang the ecstatic Clarets fans. Very shit was the answer to that.
Still, at least the WAB Team had the chance to drown our sorrows afterwards, this being the day we completed our infamous Amex Wine Tasting session in response to complaints about the wine selection at January’s Fans’ Forum.
Seven glasses of wine, one per concourse meant the Burnley defeat became a hazy blur. The hangover however lasted nearly a full week, up to the final game of February when Aston Villa came to town and Brighton continued their woeful 2021-22 Amex form.
The Albion managed only one shot on target for the second home game running, registered late on by Neal Maupay.
Most home fans in the “record Amex crowd of 31,475” had left the ground by that point in an attempt to avoid the travel chaos on road and rail that had plagued getting to Falmer.
Kick off had been delayed by 30 minutes as a result of the Villa team coach getting caught up in traffic. That meant the game did finish until nearly 5.30pm. Brighton could have been out there until 11.30pm and they still would not have found a way to score.
Matty Cash opened the scoring on 18 minutes, drilling a clinical volley from 25 yards across Sanchez into the bottom corner.
The usually dependable Veltman was at fault when the visitors doubled their lead on 68 minutes. Tyrone Mings had been booed by sections of the Albion crowd for the crime of being picked for England ahead of Dunk.
Mings would silence some of his detractors with a long ball over the top of the Brighton defence. From it, Veltman made his only mistake of the 2021-22 season – which rather summed up Brighton in February – by getting in a right mess and allowing Ollie Watkins a free run at goal.
Watkins made no mistake, beating Sanchez to make it Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa. One fan posted on Twitter 24 hours later: “I have never left a game early before but went on 80 minutes safe in the knowledge there was no hope of an equaliser.” Ouch.
February 2022 record: P5 W1 D L4 F3 A10
Results: 1-3 v Spurs (A), 2-0 v Watford (A), 0-2 v Man United (A), 0-3 v Burnley (H), 0-2 v Aston Villa (H)
League position at the end of the month: 10th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Solly March
