Vote for your WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for September 2019

Two points from a possible nine and elimination from the Carabao Cup didn’t represent the best of months for Brighton as some of the optimism from the early days of the Graham Potter era began to fade away.

The Albion had one major problem in September – taking their chances. They dominated against Burnley in the month’s opening fixture but only had a Neal Maupay goal to show for their efforts.

That allowed Jeff Hendrick to score a 91st minute equaliser with the Claret’s first shot on target to ensure that Sean Dyche’s side became the latest visitors to leave the Amex with some points towards their total.

It was a similar story away at Newcastle United. That one at St James’ Park finished 0-0 but Brighton had over 70% possession in the first half, missing a succession of chances to beat a bang average Toon outfit.

Given that we’ve never scored a goal at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, the trip to take on the Blues in the month’s final match was never likely to be a fruitful one.

And so it proved as the Albion escaped with a 2-0 defeat. It could have been more were it not for a combination of some woeful Chelsea finishing and some inspired goalkeeping from Maty Ryan who made eight saves including two that were in the outstanding category.

As a result, it’s been quite hard to put together a shortlist for our Player of the Month award, not helped by the fact that a number of the usual suspects have missed a game here and there through injury. We even had to delve into the Under 18s squad for the man who marked his Albion debut with the consolation goal in the 3-1 cup defeat to Aston Villa.

THE CONTENDERS
Steve Alzate
The Under 23 midfielder has proven to be a real find after Graham Potter pitched him in for his Premier League debut against Newcastle United. Alzate took man-of-the-match in that game for his performance at left wing back and continued in that vein as one of the few players to emerge from the Chelsea defeat with any credit. The only black mark against his name is his tendency to go down even easier than Wilfried Zaha, with two ridiculous dives produced in each of his league games so far.

Lewis Dunk
Following Burn Mania which led to Big Dan being crowned our August Player of the Month, Dunk was back at the top of the performance charts when it came to Albion defenders in September. Blocked and headed everything and given the horror show that Harry Maguire and Michael Keane had when playing for England against the might of Kosovo at the start of the month, he could be in the reckoning for a Three Lions recall for the upcoming games with Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

Neal Maupay
If Brighton are to become more clinical, then you suspect it’s going to have to come from this man. He scored the only league goal of September with an excellent finish against Burnley as he continues to adapt to live in the top flight following his £20m move from Brentford.

Haydon Roberts
The 17-year-old marked his debut with a goal in the 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Aston Villa. It was part of an assured display from the young defender who clearly has a bright future in the game. He doesn’t lack ambition either, saying that he wants to become Dunk’s regular partner in the first team and then inherit the captaincy from him. When we were Roberts’ age, our ambition extended about as far as trying to eat 30 slices of pizza in one sitting at the Pizza Hut buffet.

Maty Ryan
Written off in some quarters after a disappointing start to the season by his normal high standards, the Socceroo was back to his best in the final two games of the month. Claimed a clean sheet at Newcastle United with a couple of decent stops and then prevented the defeat at Chelsea becoming truly embarrassing, making a whole host of different saves in an extraordinary display of goalkeeping.

Dale Stephens
The Stephens haters have gone very quiet this season and that’s no surprise as he’s been outstanding. Didn’t put a foot wrong against Burnley and his performance at Newcastle was so good that he made it into the 90min’s Team of the Week – not bad given he was ‘only’ involved in a 0-0 draw on the same weekend that Manchester City smashed eight past Watford.

Poll closes at 8pm on Sunday 6th October