Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: January
Brighton wrote many records in the 2021-22 season – some good, some bad – but one piece of history that seemed to go under the radar somewhat kicked off January as Graham Potter became the first Albion manager to win away at Everton.
Maybe it was the New Year hangovers still kicking around at Goodison Park on Sunday 2nd January that have caused the victory over the Toffees to be forgotten. Looking back, it was one of the best 90 minutes of the campaign.
Everton were dire, stuck in the slump that would cost Rafa the Gaffer his job. Brighton though produced a display that was what Potterball is all about, scoring three fine goals with the irresistible Alexis Mac Allister at the heart of everything good the Albion did.
It took only two minutes and 34 seconds for the Albion to make the perfect start with a goal that, had it been scored by Manchester City, would have been played on Sky Sports News on a constant loop for the next six weeks.
Adam Webster went left to Dan Burn. Burn went left again to Marc Cucurella. Cucurella knocked up the line to Leandro Trossard. Trossard backheeled inside to Mac Allister. Mac Allister drifted into the middle and spread right to Joel Veltman.
Veltman hung up a cross to Neal Maupay. Maupay headed into the six yard box to find Mac Allister who continued his run, cushioning a placed volley past the advancing Jordan Pickford. Utterly glorious.
19 minutes later and Brighton doubled their advantage. Everton’s marking from a set piece was absolutely woeful, firstly allowing Enock Mwepu a free header to flick Mac Allister’s corner onto Burn, who was also completely free at the back post to guide past Jordan Pickford.
It was Burn’s first goal for Brighton. It would also be his last, with the owners of Newcastle taking time out between murdering critical journalists to approve a £13 million bid towards the end of the January transfer window for the Princess Diana look-a-like.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a penalty for Everton awarded after VAR told referee John Brooks to have a look at the pitch side monitor following Mwepu had made a clumsy challenge on Anthony Gordon in the box.
That did little to soothe the mood of the home crowd and Everton were booed off by over 40,000 supporters going into the break.
It was an incredible noise to hear. Interestingly the Toffee’s CEO did not use a 1500 word essay in his next set of programme notes to tell fans how to support their team. Unlike a certain Brighton deputy chairman.
Everton responded to the jeers by being much improved at the start of the second half. Still, they needed a huge slice of luck to pull one back.
Gordon cut inside and let one go from outside the box which Robert Sanchez appeared to have covered until Adam Lallana stuck out a leg to deflect the ball into the opposite corner.
Brighton needed to do something to break the Toffee’s dominance. Potter duly looked to his bench with a set of substitutions which turned the game back in favour of the Albion.
On came Tariq Lamptey to deal with the dangerous Demari Gray and Shane Duffy replaced Veltman as the Albion switched to a back three. Not many managers would have been brave enough to change personnel in the back line when so under the cosh.
Potter was and it was soon rewarded with a third Brighton goal. Burn came charging out of defence like a giraffe on crack cocaine to win a ball inside the Everton half and play it to Trossard.
Trossard’s low cross was backheeled beautifully by Mwepu straight into the path of Mac Allister, who arrived on the edge of the box to smash a thunderbastard straight into the top corner. Mac Allister was not only looking like Lionel Messi; he was now beginning to play like him.
Everton fans began to streak out after that. Those early leavers missed the Toffees pulling another back with 14 minutes remaining.
Calvert-Lewin held the ball up and found a pocket of space to feed Jonjoe Kenny, whose low cross was swept home by the unmarked Gordon. Yves Bissouma had not noticed Gordon was alive.
Everton finished the stronger but the Albion managed to hold on for a 3-2 win and that treasured first ever victory at Goodison Park. Not a bad way to start the new year.
Brighton began their 2021-22 FA Cup campaign next with a January trip to West Brom. This gave Seagulls supporters the chance to visit one of the only grounds in the country which sells brandy on the away concourse, as well as seeing a bloke dressed as a giant combi-boiler thanks to the Baggies’ sponsorship deal with Ideal Boilers.
Potter took the competition seriously, naming a strong side to take on what was effectively West Brom reserves. The Albion should have walked into the fourth round, only for some clever individual to decide that Brighton showed wear their cursed yellow away kit.
West Brom took the lead with their first shot, registered after 47 minutes of football. Karlan Grant was allowed to break down the Seagulls left and his pass found the completely unmarked Callum Robinson to beat debutant goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen from close range.
Potter responded by throwing on even more first choice players from the bench, so that by the end the only regulars not on the pitch were Lallana, Webster and Tariq Lamptey.
Cedric Kipre losing his mind and picking up two deserved bookings in the space of a minute for fouls on Maupay and Trossard left the Baggies trying to negotiate the final 21 minutes with only 10 men, something they were unable to do.
Jakub Moder could not buy a Brighton Premier League goal for love nor money in 2021-22 – he had no problem though scoring in knockout competitions, adding a January FA Cup goal to his August Camila Cabello Cup goal against Cardiff City.
Cucurella broke down the left to find 17-year-old Evan Ferguson, who threaded a through ball into the path of Moder to sweep home.
That took the tie to extra time. Brighton scored what proved to be the winner eight minutes into the additional and magic man Moder was again heavily involved, breaking down the right to deliver a cross into the box.
Trossard produced a clever dummy and that left Maupay with time and space to beat former teammate David Button as it finished West Brom 1-2 Brighton.
The third game of January was one of the most eagerly anticipated of the 2021-22 season as Brighton hosted Crystal Palace.
Potter was yet to mastermind a win over the old enemy in five previous attempts and that record was extended to six as it finished level.
Getting home from the Amex afterwards was a complete shambles and yet it still paled in comparison with the game’s major talking point on 36 minutes.
VAR spotted Will Hughes wrestling Veltman to the ground. Referee Rob Jones watched the incident back on replay and awarded Brighton a spot kick.
At this January point in the 2021-22 season, Brighton had converted penalties through Maupay, Trossard and Mac Allister.
Bizarrely, Potter decided to bypass all three of those success stories and put Pascal Gross on taking dutry, despite the fact he had barely played over the previous six matches.
With grim predictability, Gross took a woeful penalty on a par with the infamous Ryan Harley at Millllll incident. Butland kept it out, leaving Albion fans wondering what is in the water at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre that can overwrite thousands of years of human evolution and lead to a German missing a penalty?
Brighton did get the ball in the back of the net from the corner caused by Butland keeping out the penalty but it was disallowed after another trip to the monitor for Mr Jones.
Maupay was adjudged to have fouled Butland who was attempting to gather an Adam Webster header. Although the right decision, it just added to the sense of the frustration over the penalty farce.
It was against the run of play when Palace took the lead with 20 minutes remaining. Whisper it quietly, but it was a superb sweeping passing move from the Eagles rounded off by the excellent Conor Gallagher.
Brighton had enjoyed an injury time equaliser at Selhurst Park back in January. They did not leave it quite as late this time around, instead levelling with three minutes still to play through the wonderful circumstances of an own goal.
Maupay drilled a low cross into the Palace box out of desperation more than anything else. He was right to do so; whereas the Albion could find no way past Butland, Eagles defender Joachim Andersen managed to divert the ball past his goalkeeper and into the back of the net to make it Brighton 1-1 Palace.
Chelsea provided the fourth opposition of January, just three weeks after Brighton had gone to Stamford Bridge in the first Premier League meeting between the clubs of the 2021-22 season.
The Albion were superb that night, outplaying the European Champions on their way to a 1-1 draw. It was exactly the same story and outcome at the Amex, with this result and performance being arguably better given Brighton had no Lewis Dunk, Duffy, Bissouma, Lallana, Trossard or Maupay on the pitch.
Moder, Mac Allister and Danny Welbeck all went close in the first half. It was cruel in the extreme for the Albion to go into half time trailing 1-0.
The Chelsea goal came from nothing, Hakim Ziyech hitting a snapshot which appeared to catch Sanchez by surprise as he was beaten at his near post from outside the box.
Brighton were not quite as good after the break and it took them until the hour mark to register their first chance of the second half.
Kepa Arrizabalaga pulled off one of the best reaction saves the Amex has seen, clawing a Mac Allsiter effort out of the corner of the Chelsea goal at the expense of a corner.
There was nothing Kepa could do from the resulting set piece as the score became Brighton 1-1 Chelsea. Mac Allister delivered, Webster escaped the attentions of his marker with a clever run and found himself free to power a bullet header into the back of the net.
Thomas Tuchel did not like that, and used his post-game interview to criticise Albion fans for celebrating the equaliser too wildly.
According to Thomas, supporters of a club who 11 years ago were playing in the third tier of English football at an athletics stadium holding less than 9,000 people should not enjoy holding the European Champions. Maybe we should all give up watching football?
Brighton supporters cheering their team was not the only gripe Tuchel had. Tiredness, fixture congestion, lockdown parties in Downing Street, Adele’s new album, global warming, the fact a bag of Stabrust at the Amex costs £3.20… you name it and Tuchel complained about it.
The simple fact was that the Albion had been better than Chelsea and Potter had outthought his opposite number. The Brighton boss was doing some of his best work of the 2021-22 season through January, making it a particular blow when he had to miss the trip to Leicester City after catching Covid-19.
Assistant manager Billy Reid had been due to take time out from his fledgling acting career which had seen him star as a barman in an independent movie to lead the team into battle at the King Power, only to be struck down with Covid himself.
That left coach Bjorn Hamberg in charge. Hamberg helped Brighton to a 1-1 draw at Leicester, adding his name to the list of wonderful Swedish inventions alongside IKEA, ABBA and putting mashed potato on top of a hotdog.
Unsurprisingly given all the disruption, Brighton looked ragged in the first half. Leicester should have gone into the interval in the lead, passing up two good opportunities.
James Maddison crashed a free kick into the side netting and Ademola Lookman was denied when he went through one-on-one by a huge save from Sanchez.
Things did not remain level for too long into the second half. Virtually straight from kick off, Maddison hit a deflected effort which Harvey Barnes diverted towards goal. Sanchez parried and the loose ball fell to Patson Daka who steered home.
With the game not being shown on either Sky or BT, Potter was presumably watching at home on a dodgy HesGoal stream complete with Dutch commentary.
He had soon seen enough and the message came through to Hamberg to ring the changes by introducing Lamptey and Welbeck.
Brighton were instantly improved. Having kept Cucurella reasonably quiet up until that point, Leicester looked completely overwhelmed by the twin threat posed down the flanks once the wild-haired Spaniard had Lamptey for company on the opposite side.
Lamptey and Welbeck soon combined to fashion a chance, the former crossing for the latter whose header was acrobatically kept out by Kasper Schmeichel.
There was nothing that the Danish goalkeeper could do when Welbeck got his next sight of goal. Maupay found himself out on the right flank, delivering a fantastic ball onto the header of Welbeck who powered past Schmeichel with eight minutes left to secure a point for the Albion.
January 2022 record: P5 W2 D3 L0 F8 A6
Results: 3-2 v Everton (A), 2-1 v West Brom (A), 1-1 v Crystal Palace (H), 1-1 v Chelsea (H), 1-1 v Leicester (H)
League position at the end of the month: 9th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Dan Burn
