Enock Mwepu voted WAB October 2021 Brighton Player of the Month

November 11, 2021November 11, 2021 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

The WAB Brighton October 2021 Player of the Month award was taken over by The Computer as Enock Mwepu won with the support of seemingly half of Zambia.

Mwepu racked up over 76 percent of the vote to be the most convincing winner in a very long time. Not even Alireza Jahanbakhsh and his hoards of Iranian followers managed to dominate the poll in quite such spectacular style when Jahanbakhsh took the crown in January 2020 after making the shortlist based purely on THAT overhead kick against Chelsea.

Prince Ali probably did not deserve to win that one. Enock Mwepu on the other hand has at least been one of the shining lights of an October 2021 in which Brighton failed to win a game, even though he only made one start and two substitute appearances.

It was The Computer’s introduction from the bench along with Tariq Lamptey against Manchester City that saw the Albion go from 3-0 down at half time to being so dominant in the second half that the champions had to resort to time wasting

Mwepu played just behind Leandro Trossard, a more advanced role than we had seen him in so far but one in which he excelled, making intelligent runs into the space between City’s defence and midfield.

The Citizens struggled to pick him up and it was from one such instance that Mwepu earned Brighton the penalty from which their consolation arrived.

Mwepu found himself darting in on goal and despite it looking like he was going to harmlessly run the ball out of play, he managed to lure Ederson into attempting to nick the ball.

Ederson instead succeeded only in catching the leg of Mwepu, something which not even Kevin Friend could ignore. Alexis Mac Allister duly rifled home the resulting spot kick as it finished Manchester City 4-1 Brighton. A harsh scoreline on the Albion.

Better was to come from Mwepu in the League Cup exit at Leicester, where he scored his first Albion goal. Brought on at half time in place of the injured Dan Burn, The Computer opened his account when when arriving in the box with perfect timing to glance home a Marc Cucurella cross.

A first start since the opening day followed three days later at Liverpool. Just like City a week earlier, the Reds were unable to cope with Mwepu’s intelligence and vision.

That was especially true of Alisson, who found himself beaten from 35 yards when The Computer spotted the Liverpool goalkeeper off his line as half time approached.

Mwepu subsequently hit a perfect, dipping shot from distance which dropped out of the sky and into the back of the net as the Albion began their comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Anfield.

That gave Enock Mwepu an October 2021 record of two goals and one assist having been on the pitch for less than 180 minutes – it looks to me, Clive, like Brighton have a special talent on their hands.

Second place went to the Albion’s other big-money summer signing, Marc Cucurella. The Spanish left wing back showed off his attacking prowess, his defensive abilities and his wonderful hair in October as he continues to establish himself as a firm fan favourite.

Cucurella was arguably Brighton’s most creative outlet in the 0-0 draw with Arsenal. On another day when his teammates turn up with their shooting boots, he could have had five or six assists.

He did claim one at Leicester, scampering down the left within 60 seconds of coming off the bench to deliver the cross which Mwepu headed home to take the tie to penalties.

Then at Anfield, he had a rather different task in marking Mo Salah. The second-best Egyptian player of all time after Adam El-Abd had scored in every game he had played since mid-August until he came up against Cucurella.

No goals for Salah, leading to Liverpool fans to lose their minds when the Albion Twitter admin posted a picture of Cucurella with Salah trailing in his wake alongside a caption about emptying pockets. A fantastic piece of trolling.

Leandro Trossard was Brighton’s other scorer at Anfield and he takes third place in the vote. With Danny Welbeck injured, Aaron Connolly focussing on his career as a Love Island extra and the Albion having loaned out or sold 727 strikers in the summer, Trossard was used as a false nine through large parts of October.

It was a role he performed to perfection, gliding around the gaps between defence and midfield against City and Liverpool.

Neither of those opponents could work out whether to push their defence higher to pick the Vampire of Genk up or drop their midfield back and that made Trossard almost unplayable.

His goal against Liverpool was a clinical finish and had he not strayed inches offside when going one-on-one with Alisson a little while latet, he might have even won it for the Albion.