Brighton & Hove Albion 2023-24 Season Review: November

From Amsterdam to Athens, the undoubted highlights of November for Brighton supporters were the two Europa League away days as the Albion continued their 2023-24 European adventure.

Victories over Ajax and AEK Athens guaranteed the Seagulls a spot in the knockout stages of the competition. It represented an impressive turnaround from Brighton’s first one-and-a-half Europa League games, in which they lost to AEK and were 2-0 down at half time in Marseille.

This impressive European form soon started to impact on domestic performance, however. The Albion won just one Premier League game in November and more injuries began piling up as those heady opening two months of the 2023-24 campaign in which they won five of their opening six matches began to feel like a distant memory.

Hard-earned point from sticky tie with the Toffees

November started with a tough trip to Goodison Park. Everton were the Premier League’s in-form team with five wins in seven matches and had the Albion’s kryptonite Sean Dyche in their dugout.

The Toffees thrashed Brighton 5-1 the last time the sides met six months earlier at the Amex, whilst Goodison Park has never been a happy hunting ground with just two Albion wins ever.

For Brighton to come away with a 1-1 draw despite being nowhere near their best represented a decent afternoon.

Everton took an early lead when Vitalii Mykolenko drilled past Bart Verbruggen via a Lewis Dunk deflection.

Dunk thought he had equalised shortly after, only for VAR to stick its beak in and rule out what appeared a perfectly good goal.

Stockley Park concluded that Evan Ferguson – who played zero, zilch, nil part – had a nose hair offside when Dunk volleyed home a Pascal Gross free kick and so it was disallowed for offside.

Despite recording 80 percent possession, it looked like Brighton were heading for defeat up until the 84th minute.

Kaoru Mitoma twisted and teased his way beyond Jack Harrison before hitting a cross which caught Ashley Young to deflect beyond Pickford for an own goal.

A famous night in Amsterdam

Four days after the trip to Everton and Amsterdam was turned into a sea of blue and white on a cold, wet November afternoon ahead of Brighton delivering one of their best moments of 2023-24.

The phrase “A great trip ruined by 90 minutes of football” is one heard very often around these parts as to what supporting Brighton on the road is really like.

But not in this case. The 90 minutes of football just rounded off an incredible time in one of Europe’s finest cities.

Three thousand Albion fans were officially inside the Johan Cruyff Arena. Many thousands more travelled without tickets, watching in bars and pubs after congregating in Dam Square through the day.

Goodness knows how much Heineken was sunk, mushrooms imbibed and red lights switched off. Have you ever seen the Palace in the ‘Dam was sung with gusto.

In one incredible moment, an Albion fan even fell into a canal. Trying to take a shortcut, he seemingly mistook some weeds on the water (not the sort of weed Amsterdam is famous for) for a solid grass bank.

Into the drink he went, before clambering back up the side to much delight. It was one of the highlights of the trip. No mean feat when hours earlier, Brighton had just beaten four-time European champions Ajax 2-0 in their own back yard.

What made this result so impressive was the Albion had to overcome a fair amount of adversity. James Milner lasted just eight minutes. Dunk limped off injured at half time. Pervis Estupinan followed him only a short while after coming off the bench on his return from a month out.

Three more Brighton players crocked in the 2023-24 season to add to an already mighty list before November had begun.

What had seemed bad luck was now starting to look like a problem in the medical department. One the Albion moved to address at the end of the campaign by bringing in new heads of medicine and performance for 2024-25.

The opening 15 minutes were a little cagey as the Albion took time to settle. The roof of the Johan Cruyff Arena was shut and Brighton struggled with the occasion and the atmosphere created by home fans.

But once Ajax gifted the Seagulls an opening goal, there was only ever going to be one winner. Silvano Vos passed the ball straight to Simon Adingra, who quickly spotted a gap through which to find the run of Ansu Fati.

Fati made no mistake with the opportunity, drilling it clinically beyond Diant Ramaj. Cue absolute bedlam in the away section with bodies and pints flying.

The roles were reversed when Brighton doubled their advantage in the second half. Fati turned provider this time, driving forward and picking out Adingra cutting in from the right. Adingra applied the finish as the ever improving combination between he and Fati again came to the fore.

Not even a significant lock in afterwards could dampen spirits in the away end. The only downside from the trip came a few days later, when Brighton handed three fans five game bans for throwing pints in celebration which ended up in home sections… just a few hours after the club’s social media accounts posted a video of flying beer and LIMBS!

Brighton blunted by Blades

Little did those three supporters know at the time what a blessing their bans would be. I would have launched a beer myself if it meant being stopped from attending the drab 1-1 draw with Sheffield United which followed the euphoria of Amsterdam.

The Blades arrived in Brighton bottom of the table and although it was only November, already looking certain to be one of the three teams relegated in 2023-24.

Adingra put the Albion ahead with a Goal of the Season contender after only five minutes. The Ivorian winger glided past three United players, exchanged a one-two featuring a lovely flick from Facundo Buonanotte and applied the finish beyond Wes Foderingham.

It was pretty much one way traffic after that. But for all their dominance, Brighton could not find a second goal as a succession of chances went begging.

Those missed proved costly in the second half thanks to a combination of a comical own goal and a braindead sending off.

First, Mahmoud Dahoud lost his mind. A terrible stamp on Ben Osborn earned the German midfielder a straight red card and a three match ban. Just what was needed during a busy period of games with the squad already stretched to breaking point.

Although De Zerbi ended the match booked and giving an incredible rant about how he disliked 80 percent of English referees, he had no problem with the decision to send off Dahoud.

Indeed, it proved damaging to Dahoud’s Albion career. He played just 66 more minutes in a Brighton shirt before being packed off on loan to Stuttgart in January.

Within four minutes of Dahoud going berserk, Sheffield United equalised. Adingra was dispossessed, the Blades worked the ball out to Bogle and his low cross was turned into his own net by Adam Webster.

Chaos at the City Ground gets Albion back to winning ways

The November international break was supposed to give Brighton two weeks in which to get some injured players back before resuming their 2023-24 campaign at Nottingham Forest.

Instead, the Albion rocked up to the City Ground with 10 regulars in the treatment room and Dahoud suspended. And when you thought things could not get any worse, Ansu Fati and Tariq Lamptey limped off before half time.

Lamptey picking up an injury did not really come as a surprise. To lose Fati for three months though was a real blow.

In 317 Premier League minutes – the equivalent of around three-and-a-half full matches – Fati had contributed two goals, seven on target shots and five big chances. Fati started all four of the Albion’s opening Europa League Group B matches, providing two goals and one assist.

There are Seagulls fans who believe his loan was a total waste of time. The reality is he was contributing and finding form and fitness for Brighton before being injured in November, from which his 2023-24 campaign never recovered.

The Albion conceded yet another early goal, going behind to Forest after just three minutes. Morgan Gibbs-White crossed and Anthony Elanga powered a free header at the back post beyond Verbruggen.

Fati departed 17 minutes later. Five minutes after that, Evan Ferguson equalised. Gross played a pass into the feet of Ferguson, who took a touch, set himself and guided the ball into the bottom corner of the Forest net.

In doing so, Ferguson tied Wayne Rooney’s record of 11 Premier League goals scored by a teenager in a calendar year. Little did we know at the time that this November strike was to be the last goal Ferguson would score for Brighton in 2023-24.

Lamptey limped off nine minutes later. Not that the disruption seemed to overly impact the Albion as Joao Pedro gave them the lead in first half stoppage time with a powerful header from a Gross cross.

When former Brighton striker Chris Wood hauled Pedro to the ground inside the box early in the second half, the Albion had the chance to put the game to bed. Pedro converted the penalty and that was at. Or at least it should have been.

VAR gave Forest a questionable penalty, sparking a total meltdown in Dunk. Leading by example, the Brighton captain picked up a booking for dissent by protesting the decision.

Dunk then seemed to follow up by calling referee Anthony Taylor a bald prick, earning a straight red card in the process.

Once Dunk had traipsed off past a bewildered looking Pedro and Jan Paul van Hecke, Gibbs-White fired the penalty into the bottom corner to make it Forest 2-3 Brighton. A nervy finish lay in store.

The Albion though held on. Van Hecke was magnificent leading a makeshift back four of himself, Joel Veltman, Jack Hinshelwood and Gross through the closing stages as Forest threw the kitchen sink at Brighton.

De Zerbi greeted the full time whistle by sprinting 50 yards across the pitch to celebrate with the travelling Albion support.

It came from pride in what his players had achieved against all the odds and relief that for the first time since Brighton 3-1 Bournemouth two months ago at the end of September 2023, the Albion had three Premier League points on the board.

Big fat Greek three points

Once De Zerbi had calmed down via 20 Marlboro and five espressos, his task was to find 11 able bodied Albion players to take on AEK Athens.

Brighton arrived in Greece a few days after a diplomatic row broke out over the Elgin Marbles. One newspaper had a picture of Rishi Sunak on the frontpage with the simple yet effective headline of “FUCK YOU BASATRD.”

Come 11pm on Thursday night and the Albion had committed their own robbery of a precious item, stealing three Europa League points to take back to England.

Verbrurggen made a series of important saves. AEK rattled the woodwork on multiple occasions. It was pretty much one-way traffic.

Then out of nowhere, the Brighton won a second half penalty. Or to be more precise, Pedro won a second half penalty. Thanks to some help from VAR, who sent the referee to the monitor after he initially ruled no foul.

Pedro sent AEK goalkeeper Cican Stankovic the wrong way and the Seagulls led completely against the run of play.

Home heads went after that. A succession of fouls culminated in a second yellow for Mijat Gacinovic when he clumsily stamped on Veltman in a misguided attempt to win the ball.

With the full time whistle came confirmation that Brighton were through to the knockout round… and a teargassing.

The Greek police had apparently tried to disperse some less-than-impressed locals from the stadium bowl with tear gas, which then drifted into the away section to leave Albion fans choking and spluttering.

Some might say that getting tear gassed is all part of the European experience. An experience which was now guaranteed to continue into the new year.

November 2023 record: P5 W3 D2 L0 F8 A4
Results: 1-1 v Everton (A), 2-0 v Ajax (A), 1-1 v Sheff United (H), 3-2 v Forest (A), 1-0 v AEK Athens (A)
League position at the end of the month: 8th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Jan Paul van Hecke