Match Review: Watford 0-3 Brighton
Right. Before we get this match report going, we should probably offer a bit of a disclaimer. You may be about to read phrases such as “Albania on a Thursday night”, “top of the table clash at the Etihad Stadium” and “Graham Potter’s knighthood”.
Please don’t take this too seriously. After all, the last time Brighton had a new manager in charge for an away win on the opening day of the season in which they scored three times, we promptly went and picked up one point from the next 13 matches.
Martin Hinshelwood paid for that with his job and the Albion were relegated from the second tier nine months later. It would therefore be the most Brighton thing ever to go and lose 4-0 at home to West Ham United next week.
But – fuck me. Nobody in their wildest dreams could have predicted what we saw at Watford. The Albion went to Vicarage Road and completely blew away a side who set their club record for most points in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup Final.
This was arguably the most complete performance on the road since Gus Poyet’s side were tearing up League One nine years ago and winning 4-0 and 3-0 at tough places like Charlton Athletic and Peterborough United.
Even when Chris Hughton delivered that glorious promotion to the top flight in the 2016-17 season, we never went away and dominated like this against opposition who were of a similar level to us.
To win 3-0 away at Vicarage Road is impressive enough, but the performance that came with it was even more so. If we did player ratings, every single individual would be in eight out of 10 territory.
Maty Ryan didn’t have much to do but he was completely dominant when he did. If we’re honest, we had our reservations about playing three at the back away from home in the Premier League, but that was made to look very silly by Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and Dan Burn, who were rock solid throughout.
Burn in particular deserves special praise. He’s been a Brighton player for eight months now and yet here this was his league debut.
It was worth the wait. The giant defender signed from Wigan Athletic for £3.5m was absolutely incredible to the point where you wonder just how and when £18m signing Adam Webster is going to break into the starting line up.
Martin Montoya thrived at right wing back and Solly March did a solid job on the other side. Davy Propper and Dale Stephens played some lovely stuff through the middle.
Glenn Murray was a real threat throughout and Jurgen Locadia and Pascal Gross buzzed around him, never giving Watford’s back line a moments peace.
That was in stark contrast to a year ago when Ben Foster and his back four were so underemployed that they could have read the entirety of War and Peace and written a 10,000 word review of it on Amazon, had time to invent a flying car and develop a way to time travel.
Gross’ selection wasn’t without controversy, especially among the Albion’s young Twitterati who seem to hate him. The only possible explanation we can come up with for this is that it is because he doesn’t use Twitter or Instagram and so people have decided he is shit as he doesn’t give them an ego massage by interacting on social media.
It certainly has nothing to do with his footballing ability. Gross is easily our most creative player and although he didn’t quite hit the heights of his debut 2017-18 campaign last season – not helped by injury and Hughton’s formation change – he hasn’t become rubbish overnight.
Potter clearly realises this as he started with Gross over new £17m signing Leandro Trossard. That decision was justified as it was Gross’ volleyed cross that Abdoulaye Doucoure turned past Foster for an own goal on 28 minutes.
The fact that Potter didn’t name any new faces in his starting 11 was another flash point on Twitter before the game, sending some supporters into a rage that £60m worth of newly acquired talent was sitting on the bench.
That was another impressive aspect of the performance. Potter delivered bold, attacking football that looked like it belonged in the Premier League with exactly the same players who looked so laboured in the second half of last season under Hughton. A fact which seems to have gone a little unnoticed in the all hullabaloo.
What hasn’t gone unnoticed about Potter though is his use of substitutions. Have you ever seen a manager throw on two strikers when their side is winning 1-0 away from home?
Rather than sitting back and manning the barricades – more commonly known around these parts as the Beram Kayal 71st minute substitution – Potter clearly wanted to kill the game off. That approach paid off within 60 seconds as Florin Andone swept home Propper’s cross to score with his first touch.
12 minutes later and Neal Maupay joined Andone on the score sheet, coolly rounding Foster after Dunk had played an outrageous 60 yard pass out of defence which completely split the Watford back line.
Even at 3-0 up, Potter was still urging the team on. Montoya was the furthest player forward at one point and Dunk and Burn in particular were launching frequent forays into the Hornets half with the ball at their feet.
It was brilliant to watch if you were a Brighton fan. If you were a Watford fan, not so much. They began streaming out after Maupay’s goal, with the Sir Elton John Stand to our left being practically empty by the time the final whistle blew.
That stand rather brilliantly has the lyrics to Your Song plastered on the back of it. You can tell everybody this is your song; It may be quite simple but now that it’s done; I hope you don’t mind I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.
Life seems pretty wonderful right now with Potter in our world. But it’s another one of Elton’s hits that best summed up the Albion in Hertfordshire on Saturday as, based on this, Potter could be our very own Rocketman who takes us to new, unimaginable heights.
Like a Thursday night in Albania in a year’s time. See you in Tirana.
