Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: October

Victory in the final game of September against Crystal Palace would have lifted the Albion to the top of Premier League. We did not know it at the time, but drawing at Selhurst Park would bring the curtain down on the blistering start Brighton had made to the 2021-22 season with a winless October following.

Make that a winless November and almost a winless December whilst you are at it. For the Seagulls would not taste victory between beating Leicester City at the Amex on Sunday 19th December and the Boxing Day triumph over Brentford.

In defence of Brighton, October always did look like one of the most devilish months of the 2021-22 campaign. Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool provided three of the four opponents with Norwich City the other.

As anybody well versed in the ways of the Albion can tell you, a trip to the rock bottom Canaries was never going to yield three points thanks to Brighton always saving their worst performances for games against the weakest opponents. And they did not come much weaker than Norwich.

Before that though, the first game of October brought Arsenal and Ben White to the Amex. With White having played virtually his entire Brighton career in empty stadiums due to lockdown, this was the first opportunity many Albion fans had to witness the club’s record £50 million sale playing in person.

That was presuming supporters were able to get to the game without drowning. Forget Park & Ride or the train to Falmer, Noah and his ark would have been a more fitting mode of transport as Sussex was hit with rain of biblical proportions.

The weather was not the only problem, either. Up until October, it had appeared as though the xG nightmare which had plagued Brighton throughout the previous season had been banished to history – partly explaining why the Albion sat sixth in the table after six games of 2021-22.

Brighton racked up 21 shots, eight corners and recorded 58 percent possession against Arsenal. Only two of those shots were admittedly on target, meaning that the xG was a surprisingly low 1.31 compared to how dominant their performance felt.

The final score? Brighton 0-0 Arsenal. It felt like the Gunners had come to defend their way to a point, a real compliment from Mikel Arteta to the threat posed by Graham Potter and his players.

Through the storm, one Brighton player stood out above all else. Marc Cucurella had enjoyed an impressive start to life at the Amex, but the Arsenal game was the first time you got a real sense that he might just be a wing back with world class potential.

One who will cost you at least £60 million to sign this summer, if you are reading this whilst shining your head, Pep Guardiola.

Cucurella was everywhere, going from left back to popping up on the right side of the attack to deliver a dangerous cross into the Arsenal box.

He played an important role in earning an eighth clean sheet in the calendar year of 2021. Only Manchester City and Chelsea had recorded more by the start of October.

To get that shutout, Brighton had to weather a fair amount of Arsenal pressure in the opening 10 minutes. The Gunners were clearly in confident mood following their 3-1 victory over Spurs in the North London Derby and they knocked the ball about well.

Once Jakub Moder and Adam Lallana began to establish a foothold on the game – the Albion’s dominance made even more impressive by Yves Bissouma being absent through injury – it was a different story for the next 80 minutes.

Lewis Dunk set the tone for what was to happen in front of the Gunners goal, firing over the bar from six yards out with the net totally unguarded thanks to Aaron Ramsdale lying on the floor.

White produced a stunning piece of defending to turn a volleyed cross from Lallana over his own goal when Leandro Trossard seemed certain to convert.

After that, the miss-list went: Dan Burn, Lallana, Neal Maupay, Maupay again, Solly March and Shane Duffy. Potter said afterwards that in terms of performance, it was the best display of his reign so far. And he was right.

Which of course meant that Brighton would follow up with a fortunate 0-0 draw at Norwich in their second October fixture, featuring one of the most disappointing outings of the first half of the 2021-22 season.

It needed a superb clearance off the line from Duffy, Burn turning into prime Bobby Moore and some astonishingly bad finishing from Norwich to ensure the Albion escaped from Norfolk with a point.

Josh Sargent was the chief culprit when it came to squandering chances. His best (or should that be worst?) effort came with minutes remaining in the first half.

Robert Sanchez got one of those rush of bloods to the head he is prone to and came haring from his goal in an attempt to clear, succeeding only in wiping out his own captain Dunk.

That left Sargent with the simple task of rolling the ball into an empty goal. For reasons nobody will ever know, he hit it with so little pace that Duffy was able to make up 25 yards and slide the ball behind for a corner.

Burn meanwhile made two perfectly timed last ditch tackles to nick the ball from Sargent and Teemu Puki as they bore down on Sanchez, without which Brighton would have become the first team to lose to the Canaries.

Having spent the past three seasons complaining about opposition fans using the phrase #TeamsLikeBrighton, the 0-0 draw with Norwich saw the boot well and truly on the other foot as Brighton supporters bemoaned that the Seagulls should be beating #TeamsLikeNorwich.

That was not the only source of discussion on the loan journey home from Norfolk. Alongside the pedestrianisations of Norwich City Centre, the travelling army wondered what would happen if Brighton played so poorly again the following week when eventual 2021-22 champions Man City provided the opposition in the third game of October?

The answer to that was the Albion would trail 3-0 inside of 30 minutes, leaving the game over a good quarter of an hour before anyone had taken a sip of their half time Amex Stadium wine.

Brighton were a mess defensively, both in terms of organisation and shape. Burn did not seem to know whether he was playing as a centre back, a left back, a left wing back or a centre forward.

There was a five minute period when Pascal Gross was deeper than any centre back, as if he were a sweeper. The fact that some fans thought Brighton were playing a 3-4-3, others a 4-4-2, others a 4-3-3 tells you everything. You cannot afford to be so all over the shop against a City side oozing talent.

A long evening looked in store as early as the 10th minute when City should have taken the lead. That they did not was because of an utterly outrageous overhead kick off the line from Dunk, hooking out a Gabriel Jesus effort which was millimetres away from crossing into the goal.

How often have you ever seen a stadium rise to give a standing ovation for a clearance – even from the visiting fans? That is how good Dunk’s effort was and the applause went on for a good 90 seconds afterwards.

The reprieve was sadly short lived as another 90 seconds after everyone had stopped going delirious over Dunk, City took the lead.

A mistake from Sanchez saw him spill a shot from the unplayable Phil Foden, allowing Bernardo Silva to roll the ball towards Ilkay Gundogan who scored from close range.

Cucurella was at fault for goal number two. His loose pass was intercepted by Silva, who showed unreal vision to hit a 60 yard through ball to split the Albion defence in two and release Jack Grealish.

The most expensive English player of all time – who cost more to buy than the Amex did to build – bore down on Sanchez’s goal before unselfishly squaring to Foden to finish.

Three minutes later and it was game over. Grealish drew a save from the feet of Sanchez, the loose ball fell to Jesus whose effort was turned in at the near post by Foden.

City had nine shots in the first half alone, more than any other Premier League team had managed in any other game up to that point in the season.

The visitors took their foot off the gas in the second half. That allowed Brighton to be the better team, helped by the introductions of Tariq Lamptey and Enock Mwepu just before the hour mark.

This was Lamptey’s first Amex appearance of the 2021-22 season and he showed the Brighton crowd what they had been missing in his long nine month injury absence between December and October.

One glorious moment saw him twist and turn his way out of what appeared to be a dead end, escaping both Grealish and another City player to tee up a chance for Leandro Trossard which was saved.

Gross had come close prior to that once he had been relieved of his duties as an unorthodox centre back, drawing a fine block from Ederson.

A teasing March cross was just out of reach of Maupay and Trossard hit a drive straight at the City goalkeeper after good work from Moder.

Despite their three goal lead, City were concerned enough for Ederson to pick up a booking for time wasting. The visitors’ advantage was reduced to two with nine minutes remaining after Kevin Friend gave a rare decision in the Albion’s favour.

Mwepu cleverly lured Ederson into bringing him down in the area, showing the City goalkeeper just enough of the ball to convince him he could get there before Mwepu allowed his trailing leg to be caught.

With Maupay and Gross off the pitch, taking duties fell to Alexis Mac Allister. Argentina v Brazil from 12 yards and although Ederson guessed right and did brilliantly to get a hand to the spot kick, it had too much power to be kept out.

Memories of May when Brighton stirred from two goals behind to beat City 3-2 briefly flickered in the minds of Albion fans.

There was to be no repeat though and in injury time, Riyad Mahrez popped up for his normal goal against the Seagulls as it finished Brighton 1-4 Man City.

The 2021-22 Camila Cabello Cup provided a distraction for Brighton in their next October fixture as they went to Leicester City in the fourth round of the competition.

Both Potter and Brendan Rodgers named refreshingly strong teams. Victory for the Albion would have taken them into the quarter finals for only the second time in their history – the previous occasion being in the 1978-79 season.

They would have achieved it too were it not for some individual mistakes and crap penalty taking. The two goals Leicester scored were entirely preventable, starting with the opener on six minutes.

Jaston Steele played a woeful pass to Adam Webster, Harvey Barnes intercepted and made the Albion goalkeeper pay the price with a clinical finish.

The second individual mistake came from Jeremy Sarimento in the last of five minutes of first half injury time. Sarmiento attempted to play a pass back to Steele but he failed to notice Ademola Lookman lurking. Lookman simply latched onto the pass and beat Steele.

What made the timing of the second Leicester game doubly disappointing was that Brighton had just found a way back into the tie.

Less than 120 seconds earlier, Webster had cancelled out Barnes’ opener when turning home a Duffy downwards header from a Gross corner.

Equalising in the 48th minute of the first half should have seen the Albion into the interval on level terms. To go in behind after conceding in the 50th minute of the first half is, well, #TypicalBrighton.

As the second half wore on, Potter increasingly strengthened the team he had on the pitch. On came Cucurella, Dunk, the returning Bissouma and Maupay.

Cucurella needed less than a couple of minutes to involve himself in the Albion’s second equaliser of the evening, which made it Leicester 2-2 Brighton. Mac Allister released the Spaniard down the left and his perfect cross to the back post was headed home by Mwepu.

There were no more goals and so the tie went to penalties. Steele decided to dive the same way for every one of Leicester’s spot kicks, showing a tendency for the right that would have made even Benito Mussolini blush.

The Foxes scored all four of their spot kicks as a result with James Maddison, Barnes, Daka and Ricardo Pereira successful from 12 yards.

Der Kapitan Gross and Mac Allister converted for Brighton but Maupay failed to hit the target with the Albion’s second penalty and the fourth taken by Mwepu was kept out by Danny Ward to send the hosts through to the last eight.

October ended with one of the toughest looking assignments of 2021-22, as Brighton headed to Anfield to take on Liverpool.

The last place you want to go after being hammered 4-1 at home by Man City and becoming only the second team to drop points against Norwich, right?

Wrong. The Albion being the Albion, they picked up a magnificent draw on Merseyside by coming from 2-0 down and earning the praise of Liverpool supporters and Jurgen Klopp.

Klopp is notorious for finding excuses when his team fail to win. The length of the grass, some rain, a minor breeze… you name it and Klopp has used it to explain why Liverpool have not come away with three points.

And when he cannot find an excuse, he will instead launch a rant at a television interviewer to deflect from the Reds’ performance, as we saw when he lost his mind with BT Sport’s Des Kelly following Brighton 1-1 Liverpool in November 2020.

It said much that Klopp was full of praise for Brighton: “People just still don’t respect the quality Brighton have. They might not win 35 games a season, but 38 times they give to each team a proper game, definitely, because the things they do and the talent they have they are really good. Brighton were here to get a result, they got a result, they deserve it and that’s it.”

Potter named the same personnel in the same formation who had finished so strongly against City. That meant no top scorer Maupay or indeed any recognised centre forward as Trossard was deployed as a false nine. Lamptey had to again settle for a place amongst the substitutes.

Four central midfielders in Bissouma, Lallana, Moder and Mwepu were crammed into the starting XI. And March, that most disciplined of left wing backs, had a free role to float wherever he liked in the final third.

In the opening 20 minutes, it looked like a similar story to the City game was going to play out. Mo Salah found Jordan Henderson on the edge of the box and the Reds captain swept home a clinical effort with only four minutes on the clock.

With 24 minutes played, Liverpool doubled their lead. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain crossed and Sadio Mane was left completely free to head past Sanchez. Plenty of questions needed to be asked about the Albion’s defending for that one with Duffy the main culprit.

The most crucial moment of the match came next. Dunk played Sanchez a risky back pass onto the Brighton goal line and Sanchez made the situation even more hazardous when he decided to take a touch and delay getting rid.

When the Albion goalkeeper did eventually try and clear, he had left it so long that the ball cannoned into the closing Mane from point blank range and into the back of the net.

Three seasons ago, it was a goal that would have stood and there would have been few complaints about it. Mane and Liverpool celebrated and not one player in blue and white appealed, choosing instead to look dumbstruck at what a mess Dunk and Sanchez had got themselves in.

Luckily, VAR took a look at the Chuckle Brothers impression and spotted that the clearance had hit Mane’s arm. The man watching at Stockley Park was Mr Friend and he gave another surprise decision in the Albion’s favour to chalk the goal off.

Had Liverpool gone 3-0 ahead, then there would have been no coming back for Brighton. The Albion made the most of their reprieve, pulling one back four minutes before half time through Mwepu.

It was a stunning goal. The Computer exchanged passed with March before spotting Alisson off his line and hitting a dipping shot from 30 yards which caught everyone at Anfield by surprise, not least the Liverpool goalkeeper.

Alisson could only watch in horror as the ball sailed over his head and into the back of the net. Even Liverpool supporters were moved to applaud it and it earned Mwepu a congratulations tweet from the President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema.

Mwepu would go onto be a runaway winner of our WAB October Brighton Player of the Month award… okay, so there may have been some (a lot) of votes from Zambia skewing the poll but after an injury hit start to 2021-22, The Computer was starting to look at home in English football.

There was no let up in the entertainment in the second half. Salah managed to escape the pocket of the outstanding Cucurella for a minute, rounding Sanchez and slotting home before the offside flag correctly went up.

That turned out to be Liverpool’s last meaningful effort as Brighton took control. March backheeled at the end of a free flowing move to Lallana who stung the palms of Alisson.

Lallana would go onto play a vital role in the Brighton equaliser which arrived on 66 minutes. Sanchez started the move with a brilliant, pinpoint piece of distribution to pick out Cucurella 60 yards down the pitch on the left flank.

Cucurella and Lallana linked up to find Trossard, popping up so effectively once again in a pocket of space between the Liverpool defence and midfield.

The Vampire of Genk escaped the attentions of a defender, picked his spot and then slotted past Alisson. From 2-0 down, it was now Liverpool 2-2 Brighton.

Liverpool fans were stunned and the ‘famous Anfield atmosphere’ was reduced to cries of anguish and frustration that the hosts were being outplayed.

It nearly got worse for the Reds. Trossard again managed to drift unnoticed into a dangerous position, allowing him to slip through the Liverpool defence and round Alisson to score, only for the offside flag to go up. Like the earlier Salah goal disallowed, it was tight but ultimately the right decision.

The draw at Anfield gave Brighton fans hope that the Albion would head into November with their 2021-22 season back on track after a tricky October.

With winnable fixtures to come against Newcastle United, Aston Villa and 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United, eyes could be firmly fixed up the Premier League table.

Oh, hang on a minute, this is Brighton we are talking about…

October 2021 record: P5 W0 D4 L1 F5 A8
Results: 0-0 v Arsenal (H), 0-0 v Norwich (A), 1-4 v Man City (H), 2-2 v Leicester (A), 2-2 v Liverpool (A)
League position at the end of the month: 7th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Enock Mwepu