Brighton & Hove Albion 2023-24 Season Review: October

The third month of the 2023-24 season saw Brighton fans dusting off their GCSE French as October kicked off in Marseille for the Albion’s first ever Europa League away game.

Once Seagulls supporters had finished telling the locals their age, that they have two sisters and a cat and like going to the cinema at the weekends with friends, it was time to be bussed to the Stade Velodrome for an authentic European football experience.

Marseille shocked by Albion comeback

To say the Velodrome was an intimidating stadium would be a slight understatement. With its sweeping banks of mass concrete terraces, it looked menacing before you even encountered the noise.

Through the opening 20 minutes, Brighton visibly wilted in the face of the hostile atmosphere. The Seagulls found themselves 2-0 down. Having lost their opening Europa League game 3-2 against AEK Athens in September, it looked like the European adventure was going to be over before it started.

But then Brighton showed what Roberto De Zerbi liked to call their big balls to salvage a draw. Not many teams come from 2-0 down away against Marseille. It was a superb result in the circumstances and almost made getting locked inside the stadium for hours afterwards bearable.

De Zerbi attempted to counter the intimidation factor by naming the most experienced starting XI available. But even usually reliable individuals like Lewis Dunk and Joel Veltman struggled.

For the first Marseille goal, Veltman and Mahmoud Dahoud allowed Jonathan Clauss to pull a pass back to Chancel Mbemba who applied the finish.

89 seconds later and the hosts doubled their lead. Dunk produced the sort of air kick rarely seen outside of a Sussex Sunday League game at East Brighton Park featuring 22 hungover blokes, leaving Marseille to break through Amie Harit.

He found Jordan Veretout and despite the shot appearing to go straight at Jason Steele, the ball found its way back into the back of net.

Five days earlier and the Albion had collapsed in alarming fashion to a 6-1 defeat at Aston Villa. It felt like a repeat was on the cards, albeit in the south of France rather than a frim suburb of Birmingham.

Some Brighton supporters were still yet to make it into the stadium thanks to the usual incompetence of the French police and delayed planes.

Tony Bloom even found himself giving a landing announcement as his flight from Heathrow to Marseille arrived two hours late, telling supporters the club had arranged for buses to pick them all up from the airport.

As the latecomers continued to roll into the away end, so the Albion grew into the game. Pascal Gross pulled one back when converting a Kaoru Mitoma cross nine minutes in the second half, making it very much game on.

The equaliser arrived with four minutes remaining. Tariq Lamptey burst into the box and under minimal contact from Clauss, went down like a shot rebel manning the barricade in Les Miserables.

A penalty was awarded. Despite the best efforts of home players to get in the head of Joao Pedro and a a cacophony of noise rolling down to the pitch, the Brazilian was the coolest man in Marseille to convincingly convert.

It completed a recovery which ranked as the most remarkable surprise sprung on the French since Lord Nelson led the British Naval Fleet to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar against similarly insurmountable odds.

“I want to be honest. We’re not playing well,” said De Zerbi afterwards. “It’s a very tough period for us. It’s difficult for us to show our quality. But it’s important playing with heart, with passion. The reaction was incredible.”

New stars shine and old friends reunited

The visit of Liverpool to Brighton for the first Premier League game of October saw De Zerbi opt for the heavy rotation which became a running theme of the 2023-24 season.

Three of the players brought into the starting XI justified their selections. Simon Adingra was excellent down the right whilst Igor Julio and Carlos Baleba enjoyed promising full debuts.

Brighton were not only up against Liverpool but the match officials. Jurgen Klopp had ramped up the pressure on PGMOL leading up to his side visiting the Amex, demanding the Redmen be allowed to replay their defeat at Spurs which featured a controversial VAR decision.

Unsurprisingly, every 50-50 call went Liverpool’s way against Brighton. The Albion deserved immense credit for coming away with a 2-2 draw playing against 12 men.

Adingra gave Brighton the lead with a piece of quick thinking on 20 minutes. He robbed Alexis Mac Allister of possession and spotting Alisson Becker stranded out of position, fired the ball over the helpless Liverpool goalkeeper and into the unguarded net from 25 yards.

The Albion were well on top until two Mo Salah goals in the space of 80 seconds turned the game on its head.

Dunk gave away possession, Liverpool broke into the box via a whirl of one-touch passes with Salah applying the finish.

Next it was the turn of Bart Verbruggen to be sloppy with the ball. His loose pass put Gross under all kinds of pressure.

Dominik Szoboszlai subsequently pounced, leading Gross to pull back the shirt of the Hungarian as he rounded Verbruggen.

A penalty was the only outcome. You could have even argued Gross was lucky not to see red. Salah converted the spot kick and Liverpool led.

Brighton should have had a penalty of their own when Virgil van Dijk prevented a Mitoma pass reaching Baleba and Adingra waiting in the box.

De Zerbi watched the incident back on an iPad in the dugout before losing his mind. The Albion head coach received a booking for his trouble with Klopp doing his best to calm down the irate De Zerbi.

The mood of De Zerbi was further calmed when Brighton levelled the game from a soft free kick. Solly March swerved a delivery between two red shirts and into the path of Dunk, who clinically volleyed beyond Alisson to ensure the spoils were shared.

De Zerbi showed his class afterwards, leading Mac Allister around the Amex on the World Cup winner’s first return since moving to Liverpool for £35 million.

Mac Allister received the reception he deserved from the Albion faithful. Once a Seagull, always a Seagull and all that… as long as you leave Brighton in a dignified manner respectful of the club. Unlike Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Marc Cucurella, et all.

Injury blows against the PSR cheats with 115 charges

A 2-1 defeat against a Manchester City side who are accused of breaking profit and sustainability rules and cooking their books to buy success was no disgrace for Brighton.

Julian Alvarez put the Abu Dhabi Sportswashers 1-0 ahead with only seven minutes played. Erling Haaland doubled the advantage before half time.

The Albion came on strong in the second half, pulling one back with 17 minutes remaining. A Dunk block at one end led to Ansu Fati and Mitoma combining to break forward at speed.

Mitoma reached the City box and when his cross was only half cleared to the edge of the area, Fati arrived to guide the ball home.

By full time though, the result had become pretty insignificant. Instead, that October afternoon at the Etihad Stadium was the day the problems Brighton would suffer with injuries in 2023-24 really began to hit home.

Solly March left on a stretcher having suffered another serious knee problem. Danny Welbeck also left proceedings injured and would not be seen for another two months.

With Julio Enciso and Pervis Estupinan already long-term absentees, the Albion were beginning to struggle for numbers. Little did we know that the 2023-24 injury crisis would get far worse as October gave way to November for Brighton.

Famous Ajax Amsterdam beaten by Little Old Brighton

Losing March was a devastating blow. The Albion honoured their fallen comrade in the best way possible, however – by securing a first ever Europa League win.

It was not just any win, either. It came against the four-time European Champions Ajax, whose most recent Champions League title came in the same year Brighton drew 2-2 with Canvey Island in the FA Cup. What a journey.

“We have got the first victory in Europe for Brighton,” De Zerbi said afterwards. “It is a great day for our fans, our club, our owner and we are very proud to give them this day.”

Pedro scored his fourth goal in three European outings when driving home a rebound after Ajax goalkeeper Diant Ramaj saved from Mitoma.

Fati added a second with some neat footwork after a slick passing move released Adingra. Fati was beginning to show glimpses of why his Barcelona contract contained a £1 billion release clause.

If only his October form had extended across the 2023-24 season, rather than being another Brighton player whose season was ruined by injury the following month.

“We played a great game, we played very well,” De Zerbi added. “We deserved to win, maybe with more goals, but the most important news is that we didn’t concede a goal.”

Indeed, almost lost amongst the euphoria was that Brighton had belatedly kept their first clean sheet of 2023-24 deep into October with 13 games played.

A night never to be forgotten. Unless you ended up in the Hope until 2am with loads of Ajax fans. In which case, the memory becomes a little hazy.

Cottagers curse continues

If only the memory was a little hazy for the final game of October where Fulham extended their hold over Brighton into the 2023-24 campaign by leaving the Amex with a scarcely deserved 1-1 draw.

The transport to and from the Amex was rubbish. The weather was rubbish. The refereeing was rubbish. The Albion’s finishing was rubbish. And it was the first time we noticed the roof in the West Upper leaking. Which was also rubbish.

Fulham should have been down to 10 men midway through the first half when Joel Palhinha caught Gross in the face with an elbow. It was a challenge similar to the one which had seen New Zealand captain Sam Cane sent off in the Rugby World Cup final the previous day.

Yet despite the assault produced by Palhina being deemed a red card in rugby, referee Michael Salisbury saw nothing wrong with it in football.

Brighton did not even receive a free kick, much to the disgust of the normally placid Gross. Der Kaiser spent the next five minutes telling Mr Salisbury exactly what he thought about the lack of decision.

Insult would go onto be added to injury when Palinha scored the Fulham equaliser in the second half, after which the Cottagers ran down the clock using a display of acting unlikely to trouble the Oscar judges anytime soon.

Gross bounced back from his near decapitation by setting up Evan Ferguson for the Albion’s opener. Ferguson produced a great first touch from a Gross pass and caressed the ball into the bottom left corner for a wonderfully clinical finish.

It was Ferguson’s 10th Premier League goal of 2023, meaning he became the first teenager since Wayne Rooney to hit double figures in a calendar year.

Brighton really should have notched more than just one. The Albion took 18 shots with 10 on target but could find no other way past Bernd Leno.

The Fulham goalkeeper was so busy that he ended up going down with cramp with nobody around him and the ball 70 yards up the other end in the second half.

Either that or it was further gamesmanship from Fulham of the sort which led half the Amex to conclude no winner was forthcoming and to subsequently head home early.

October 2023 record: P6 W3 D0 L3 F12 A13
Results: 2-2 v Marseille (A), 2-2 v Liverpool (H), 1-2 v Man City (A), 2-0 v Ajax (H), 1-1 v Fulham (H)
League position at the end of the month: 7th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Lewis Dunk