Brighton & Hove Albion 2021-22 Season Review: September

“And with victory away at Crystal Palace in the sixth round of 2021-22 fixtures, Brighton could move top of the Premier League at the end of September.”

Did you ever think you would read a sentence like that? Me neither. And okay, so the Albion did not manage to see off that lot from up the A23 and sit atop of English football for the first time in the club’s history.

But September was still a magnificent month, featuring two wins and a draw as Brighton made 2021-22 their best ever start to a top flight campaign.

August had finished with the Seagulls getting rinsed in wide areas by Everton. The Albion’s response was instant and a matter of days later, they finally offered Getafe the £15 million required to activate the release clause of Marc Cucurella having spent most of the summer trying to knock the fee down.

Cucurella would of course go onto be a revelation, winning the Albion’s 2021-22 Player of the Season Award eight months after his September debut for Brighton which came away at newly promoted Brentford.

Already, Cucurella’s Premier League bow has entered into Seagulls folklore. Early on and the wild-haired Spaniard received a whack to nose which left him on the ground. Lewis Dunk trotted over to check Cucurella was alright, before telling him “Welcome to the Premier League!”

That was not the only lesson Cucurella received that day. He and his fellow teammates unaware of the bad blood between Tony Bloom and Bees owner Matthew Benham would have released how much beating Brentford means to the Albion owner via the rumoured sizable win bonus which has become tradition whenever the clubs cross paths.

Also tradition is for Bloom to watch from the away end whenever Brighton go to Brentford. His refusal to go in Benham’s director’s box started in the Championship days at Griffin Park and continued in the Premier League for the Albion’s first ever visit to the Brentford Community Stadium.

For 70 of the 90 minutes, it looked like Bloom was going to be disappointed. The Bees dominated whilst playing at a frenetic pace, missing three gilt-edged opportunities that were reminiscent of watching Brighton during the previous season’s xG nightmare.

Despite losing Adam Webster to injury early on, the Albion managed to stay in the game. Brentford ran out of steam as the game approached the final 20 at the same point as Graham Potter introduced Alexis Mac Allister into proceedings.

Mac Allister gave Brighton instant control of the midfield. He went close to opening the scoring with a short that whistled over the bar before playing a key role in the 90th minute winner scored by Leandro Trossard.

Jakub Moder made a pass into Mac Allister who in turn found Trossard. The Vampire of Genk carried the ball across the edge of the box until enough space opened up for him to bend an effort into the far corner of David Raya’s goal. Brentford 0-1 Brighton and no time for the hosts to do anything about it.

The away end exploded with Bloom going more mental than anybody else. An undeserved win? Perhaps. Harsh on Brentford? Definitely.

And Brighton knew only too well how it feels when the boot is on the other foot, having failed to take three points in so many games they had dominated in the previous two seasons under Potter.

What we had seen in August and were continuing to witness in September was that Brighton were a streetwise, smarter team in 2021-22.

Those qualities were again in evidence against Leicester City. The Albion were second-best for much of their home game against the FA Cup holders and yet they still found a way to secure a first Premier League win over the Foxes – with a little help from an eagle-eyed linesman and VAR.

Several good chances went begging for Brighton in the opening 30 minutes. They were eventually given a helping hand in taking the lead – literally – when Shane Duffy met a delivery into the box with a towering header blocked by the upright arm of Jannik Vestergaard.

After Vestergaard punched the ball behind, referee Stuart Attwell initially awarded a corner. Nothing was getting past his assistant patrolling in front of the West Stand though, who flagged to say he spotted a Leicester player performing an impression of Michael Jordan.

VAR confirmed following a lengthy check, leaving Neal Maupay with the simple task of beating Kasper Schmeichel from the spot. Except of course that is not actually that simple, with Schmeichel having a ridiculous penalty saving record against the Albion.

The Dane did his best to put off Maupay with all kinds of mind tricks. Maupay though remained surprisingly calm and collected, brutally firing home for his third goal in five games.

Yves Bissouma took a heavy blow to the knee with half time approaching. Enock Mwepu was ready and waiting to replace him but Bissouma managed to limp through to the break before going onto complete 25 minutes of the second half until he finally succumbed.

Brighton were 2-0 ahead by that point, Danny Welbeck producing a superb header from a Trossard free kick which gave Schmeichel no chance.

That sparked Leicester into life and they were much the better side in the final 30 minutes, even more so once they took total control of midfield with Bissouma having departed.

Brighton had to dig deep and defend with Duffy leading the way and Robert Sanchez making one outrageous save at full stretch.

Nothing could be done when Jamie Vardy got his usual goal against the Albion, slamming home from close range after a neat passing move involving Ricardo Pereira, Ademola Lookman and Youri Tielemans carved Brighton apart.

It was after this that our friendly linesman again earned his keep. Lookman fired home following a bit of a scramble from a corner, only for the assistant referee to flag for offside as Harvey Barnes had deliberately been in the way of Sanchez.

For that to happen once is unfortunate. For Barnes to then do the exact same thing with five minutes remaining was plain and simple stupidity, this time ensuring that Wilfred Ndidi’s effort was ruled out for offside.

Hopefully, somebody from the Albion sent both Barnes and the linesman a nice meat hamper as a thank you. The duo also made Schmeichel look incredibly silly for celebrating the second disallowed goal wildly in front of the North Stand.

Schmeichel responded by stopping any of his teammates from shaking Mr Attwell’s hands once the full time whistle had blown. And he was not the only bloke with Leicester connections lacking class afterwards.

Gary Lineker took to Twitter to say: “VAR has completely buried Leicester today. Unbelievably unfair.” Lineker must have been watching another game, given it was actually the linesman who spotted the handball and both offsides.

Not to mention that all three decisions were proved correct. There must have been extra salt in Walkers Crisps in September or something for Brighton to spark such a reaction from players and fans of a Leicester team most expected to challenge for the top four in 2021-22.

Four wins from five Premier League matches represented the best start the Albion had ever made to a top flight campaign. Most Brighton fans therefore headed to Selhurst Park for the final match of September expecting that form to come to a juddering halt.

But before the trip to Palace, there was a Camila Cabello Cup third round tie to navigate. Swansea City were the visitors and Aaron Connolly took time off from making headlines in the gossip pages to score twice in a routine 2-0 win.

Connolly had been involved in an interesting 2022. By mid-September, he had:

• Broken Covid regulations and risked carrying the virus into the Albion’s secure bubble by meeting up with a woman for a romp during lockdown.
• Been in the papers for his apparent angry reaction with ex-girlfriend Lucinda Strafford for agreeing to go on Love Island.
• Been filmed trying to start a fight in Shoosh.
• Thrown his toys out the pram and been dropped from the matchday squad for Burnley away when it became apparent that he was not going to be in the starting XI.
• Been plastered all over Miss Strafford’s Instagram story getting pissed up at a musical festival when missing the Brentford game through injury.

The Irish striker clearly thought his brace against a Championship reserve side had silenced his critics, as he celebrated in front of the one hundred or so Swansea fans by cupping his ears at them. God knows what the Swans fans thought of that.

Connolly’s goals and celebrations were not the only highlights of the Swansea win. Potter also gave the people what they wanted when introducing influencer, poet and DJ Jurgen Locadia from the bench for his first Albion appearance since August 2019.

And then came the Palace game. As predicted, Brighton chose the meeting with their arch rivals to give their worst performance of the 2021-22 season to date, although they did manage to complete September undefeated thanks to the last minute heroics of Maupay.

They say it is never over until the fat lady sings. In this case, it was not over until Wilfried Zaha was having a temper tantrum on the pitch in the 95th minute when Maupay made it Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton.

Bissouma was ruled out with the injury picked up in the Leicester win. Potter named Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross as the Albion’s central midfield partnership but their lack of mobility was evidence from the first whistle.

Conor Gallagher took full advantage to run the show. It was the on-loan Chelsea midfielder who was felled in the Brighton box by Trossard, giving Zaha the chance to make it 1-0 from the penalty spot on the stoke of half time.

Potter sought to break the Eagles’ monopoly of the ball by introducing Steve Alzate at half time in place of Dan Burn. A tactical reshuffle saw a switch to a back four with Alzate charged with adding the energy and drive to the Albion midfield that Bissouma normally provides.

Unfortunately for Alzate, he only lasted 20 minutes before a tangle with Jordan Ayew saw him roll an ankle. Moder took over from Alzate and it brought an improvement of sorts.

Still, it looked like Palace were heading for victory until the game ticked into the fifth minute of injury time. With delicious irony, Vicente Guaita was the man at fault just 30 seconds after some ridiculous timewasting from the Eagles number one.

A shank from Guaita, a delightful volleyed ball back over the Palace defence from Joel Veltman and a cool-as-you-like finish from Maupay later and the Albion had stolen a point.

For once, the Metropolitan Police did not kettle Seagulls supporters around the grim streets of Croydon afterwards. Presumably they were too busy issuing a warrant for the arrest of Maupay for daylight robbery.

The late, late drama sparked scenes across Selhurst which were to put it mildly, incredible. Duffy and Dunk both gave it big to the Holmesdale End before legging it 90 yards down the pitch.

Sanchez was booked and then nearly managed to start a mass brawl between Brighton players and some Palace fans as the team headed down the tunnel when leaving the pitch.

Maupay was of course a complete shithouse, as per normal. He cupped his ears to the Supermarket Stand after scoring, causing Zaha to lose his mind.

The away section meanwhile was complete bedlam, 3,000 Brighton fans going insane. Nobody cared that Brighton had failed to win at Palace to top the Premier League thanks to the joy provided by Maupay.

Little did we know that it would be three months before we would see another Albion victory.

September 2021 record: P4 W3 D1 L0 F6 A3
Results: 1-0 v Brentford (A), 2-1 v Leicester (H), 2-0 v Swansea (A), 1-1 v Crystal Palace (A)
League position at the end of the month: 6th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Neal Maupay