Brighton & Hove Albion 2023-24 Season Review: September
The first day of September in the 2023-24 season saw Brighton fans glued to Skyscanner as the draw for the Europa League group stage was made.
Who would the Albion face in their first ever European adventure? What countries, cities and away days lay in wait?
The answer was Olympique de Marseille, Ajax and AEK Athens. Wine, mushrooms and gyros. Two former Champions League winners. Three of the biggest teams in their respective countries. It was the perfect draw for a club making their Europa League debut.
Fast forward a little over 24 hours and the feelgood factor on the terraces over trips to France, the Netherlands and Greece was matched by what happened on the pitch when Newcastle United visited the Amex.
Fergie time against the Saudi Sportswashers
The Saudi Sportswashers finished the previous campaign third in the Premier League. A tough afternoon looked in store for Brighton to start September, coming off the back of the previous week’s first defeat of 2023-24 against West Ham United.
Brighton though bounced back from that first loss to the Hammers since 2012 in the best manner possible. Jan Paul van Hecke and Joel Veltman shone after being recalled by Roberto De Zerbi and Billy Gilmour gave a midfield masterclass.
But the undoubted star of the show was Evan Ferguson. The boy from Bettystown bagged all three goals as the Albion won 3-1 to blow Newcastle away.
In doing so, Ferguson became only the fourth player to score a Premier League hat-trick before their 19th birthday after Chris Bart-Williams, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen.
Ferguson opened the scoring with 28 minutes on the clock following some interesting goalkeeping from Nick Pope. The England international hit a terrible clearance, resulting in him being required to save with his feet from Kaoru Mitoma seconds later.
The loose ball found its way to Gilmour 30 yards out, who hit an absolute piledriver. It still should have been bread and butter for Pope, but an uncharacteristic error saw him spill the ball. Ferguson gobbled up the rebound.
Gilmour claimed a most unusual assist for the second, teeing up Ferguson via a sliding tackle. Ferguson duly picked out the bottom corner from 25 yards with unerring accuracy.
Four minutes later and it was game, set and match. Mitoma advanced and passed to Ferguson on the edge of the area. Some quick feet created just enough room for Ferguson to fire a left footed effort towards goal, taking a big deflection off Fabian Schar to defy Pope.
The only downer on the day came when Newcastle substitute Callum Wilson pulled one back in stoppage time. The Albion defence fell asleep momentarily, a long ball over the top catching out both Dunk and Van Hecke, allowing Wilson to run through and beat Verbruggen.
Albion leave Ten Haag tearing his hair out
Victory over the Toon was followed by the September international break, where Brighton captain Lewis Dunk was rewarded for a fine start to the 2023-24 season with a place in the England starting line up away against Scotland.
Dunk was magnificent at Hampden Park, the second-best Three Lions player on the pitch after Jude Bellingham as England beat the Auld Enemy 3-1 in their own back yard.
When the Premier League action resumed, it was off to Old Trafford. Glow Up Graham Potter had delivered the Albion’s first ever win at the Theatre of Dreams the previous season.
Manchester United had not lost a home Premier League fixture in the 13 months since. De Zerbi ended that run, continuing Brighton’s dominance over the Red Devils by masterminding a stunning 3-1 success.
De Zerbi rested five first choice players; something not even Manchester City would do going to Old Trafford. It meant the Brighton starting XI who beat United cost under £17 million to put together. The most expensive player being Pascal Gross, purchased for £3 million six years earlier.
Despite this, Erik Ten Haag went on a bizarre post-game rant attempting to explain his side’s defeat: “All the teams have spent a lot of money. Brighton have spent money.”
With United’s squad costing £991.7 million to assemble, it was an excuse thinner than Ten Haag’s hairline.
Danny Welbeck continued his fine record of scoring against former clubs by starting and finishing the move which gave Brighton the lead on 20 minutes.
Dat Guy fed Simon Adingra down the right before continuing his run into the box. Adingra duly crossed, Adam Lallana left the ball with a very clever dummy and Welbeck was on hand to place into the bottom corner with his left foot without breaking stride.
The second Brighton goal was the epitome of DeZerbiBall. A 30 pass move started by a short Jason Steele goal kick ended with Gross notching his seventh career goal against United.
Tariq Lamptey set up the third on 70 minutes to cap a magnificent performance at left back. His run down the wing and pass into the box was converted by unmarked substitute Joao Pedro.
Once again, Brighton saw a clean sheet dirtied late on when Steele was beaten from 25 yards by Hannibal Mejbri. Not that it mattered; three points from Old Trafford were in the bag and eyes now firmly set on the visit of AEK to the Amex.
AEK give Albion a Europa League lessons
Glorious chaos was the only way to describe the 90 minutes which unfolded against the Greek champions as Brighton made their Europa League bow.
AEK were deserved 3-2 winners of a five-goal thriller in which 11 players were booked, both managers shown yellow cards and VAR helped Brighton receive two penalties initially unawarded by Estonian referee Kristo Tohver.
Djibril Sidibe powered home a header from a corner to put AEK 1-0 ahead inside 10 minutes. Brighton equalised 20 minutes later from the spot via Pedro – but only after Mr Tohver overturned his initial decision to book the Brazilian forward for diving after a trip from Ehsan Hajsafi.
AEK retook the lead after more questionable set piece defending from the Albion. Orbelin Pineda delivered a free kick which Mijat Gacinovic stretched to get onto and divert past Steele.
Brighton levelled for the second time on 66 minutes. Pedro again won and converted a penalty once Mr Tohver consulted his pitch side monitor.
The Albion had chances to win the game after that, only to be naively undone six minutes from time. A long diagonal ball caught the defence flatfooted, Niclas Eliasson squared and the wonderfully named Ezequiel Ponce beat Steele to make it Brighton 2-3 AEK.
Torrential rain greeted the full time whistle. It was apt the night finished in Withdean-style weather, what with all the reflections in the lead up to the game on the Albion’s incredible journey to Europe.
AEK had given the Seagulls an important lesson in the nous required to win in Europe. It was one Brighton knew they needed to learn quickly if their Europa League adventure was to extend beyond September and much further into the 2023-24 season.
Popping the Cherries
How Brighton would cope with playing Thursday nights in Europe followed by Sunday in the Premier League was one of the key questions facing the Albion in the 2023-24 season.
The initial signs looked good as defeat against AEK was followed by a 3-1 win 72 hours later over Plucky Little Bournemouth.
Bart Verbruggen gifted the Cherries an early lead when getting into a right mess attempting to play out from the back.
The young Dutch goalkeeper gifted possession to Ryan Christie, leading to Dominic Solanke lobbing into a now-empty goal.
Some sections of the North Stand responded to this by jeering Verbruggen when Brighton looked to play out from the back again. It did not sit well with Dunk, who told the crowd what he thought about their reaction.
Thankfully, the mood began to turn just before the break when Brighton were gifted an equaliser. Billy Gilmour swung a cross into the box from out on the left flank and Milos Kerkez produced a brilliant glancing header to send the ball beyond his own goalkeeper.
De Zerbi opted to ramp up the pressure on Bournemouth at the start of the second half. A double change saw Mitoma and Ansu Fati introduced.
It paid instant dividends. Within 15 seconds of the restart, Fati and Mitoma combined for the Japanese Bullet Train to put Brighton 2-1 ahead. Mitoma then rounded off the victory with a header from a Pervis Estupinan cross.
Chelsea win their Carabao Cup Final
Lady Fate was obviously in a mischievous mood during September as the 2023-24 Carabao Cup third round draw paired Brighton with Chelsea.
Many Chelsea supporters saw the tie as their cup final. How the mighty have fallen. From Champions League winners in 2021, Chelsea were desperate to beat the Albion as revenge for paying over £200 million to take anything to Stamford Bridge not nailed down at the Amex.
And the dreams of Blues fans came true as they eked out a 1-0 victory. Nicolas Jackson scored the only goal of the game, sweeping an effort beyond Verbruggen from a clever Cole Palmer pass played through the legs of Van Hecke.
Villa hit Brighton for six in September mauling
By September of the 2023-24 season, every Brighton fan knew the deal over how DeZerbiBall played out. When it worked, it was brilliant. Not many teams in the world could deal with it. But when it didn’t work, it tended to go more wrong than the Titanic navigating an icefield.
Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton was a prime example of DeZerbiBall going terribly wrong. A poor performance and an awful defeat which was the Albion’s heaviest on the road since losing 6-0 at West Ham United in April 2012.
Jack Hinshelwood was handed a surprise full debut in midfield. He formed a partnership with Gilmour which proved too lightweight as a relentless Villa side cut through at will.
Ollie Watkins made it 1-0 on 14 minutes. Watkins made it 2-0 on 21 minutes. Moussa Diaby made it 3-0 on 26 minutes. Ouch.
De Zerbi brought on Fati and Pedro at half time. Five minutes into the second half and Pedro crossed for Fati to score his first goal in Albion colours. Was the comeback on?
No. Watkins made it 4-1 on 60 minutes. Jscob Ramsey made it 5-1 on 85 minutes. Douglas Luiz made it 6-1 on 97 minutes. Ouch.
A miserable day was rounded off in apt style by a pile up on the M40 adding significant delays to the journey back from Birmingham.
Car crash on the pitch, car crash on the the motorway…
September 2023 record: P6 W3 D0 L3 F12 A13
Results: 3-1 v Newcastle (H), 3-1 v Man United (A), 2-3 v AEK Athens (H), 3-1 v Bournemouth (H), 0-1 v Chelsea (A), 1-6 v Aston Villa (A)
League position at the end of the month: 6th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Billy Gilmour
