Vote now for your WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for January 2018
January may not have provided any Premier Legaue wins, but there was progression in the FA Cup which leaves Brighton and Hove Albion with a very real shot at their best run in the competition for 32 years.
Both Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough were vanquished in rounds three and four respectively, Glenn Murray scoring late winners in the 2-1 win over our arch rivals and the 1-0 victory against Championship promotion challengers Boro as part of his four goal haul for the month.
He was also on target in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in which Jose Izquierdo gave his best performance yet for the club and Murray also netted in the frustrating 1-1 draw away at Southampton which really could’ve been more had the Albion not retreated to man the barricades after taking the lead.
Anthony Knockaert was the only other man to net in the Premier League in January in the draw with the Cherries. but that he doesn’t even make the shortlist tells its own story as the Little French Magician’s struggles at the highest level continue.
One man experiencing the opposite to Knockaert and who continues to get better with every game in the top flight is Ezequeil Schelotto with his performance in the 4-0 defeat against Chelsea in particular being a real highlight and pushing him further along the way to cult status with the Albion.
Gaetan Bong
Continues to battle with Markus Suttner for the left back role but is now just edging ahead of the Austrian. In a generally negative team performance at Southampton, he was one of the few players looking to get forward and be positive, particularly in the second half.
Pascal Gross
A slightly quieter month by his high standards but you can’t ignore his performance against Bournemouth which was majestic and had the Sky Sports punditry team waxing lyrical about how good he is on the ball.
Jose Izquierdo
Gave his best performance of the season so far in the draw with Bournemouth. They were simply unable to cope with him with the only black mark against his name being a terrible one-on-one miss that could’ve secured all three points.
Glenn Murray
Four goals in seven games in January was an excellent return for the striker and helped him surpassed his previous best haul of top flight goals in a single season with three months still left to play. Without him, we’d probably be out of the FA Cup and we would have two less points in the league.
Davy Propper
Another solid month for the Dutch midfielder.. He uses the ball so intelligently, as seen in the Bournemouth game when he actually did what his song says and never gave the ball away . On the few occasions he got forward he looked a real threat as well, something we’d like to see more of if Chris Hughton would allow it.
Ezequiel Schelotto
It seems a long time ago that everyone was writing him off after a couple of bad performances after signing from Sporting Lisbon. His showing against reigning champions Chelsea was superb – on another day and with a better referee, he could’ve had two penalties and scored, all from right back.
