Match Preview: Brighton v Southampton
The game that the pundits love to call a ‘South Coast Derby’ takes place at the Amex as Southampton make the 66 mile journey along the A27 to face Brighton.
It will be a good test to see how far the Albion have come so far in Graham Potter’s short reign in charge. The Saints’ 1-0 win in Sussex back in March was pretty much a microcosm of the problems that ultimately cost Chris Hughton his job – a timid, turgid performance in which Brighton were more determined to avoid defeat than try and win.
How will Potter’s new brand of attacking football fare against Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side? In the Austrian, Southampton too have a young boss with lots of modern ideas about how the game should be played and who isn’t afraid to go on the front foot, as shown by the way that they pushed Liverpool so close at St Mary’s last week.
Seagulls versus Saints has, bar last season’s crazy 2-2 draw down in Southampton, been a Premier League fixture that could cure insomnia so far. There seems little chance of that being the case this time – although hopefully it won’t be VAR that is the main talking point afterwards.
A brief history of Southampton
Southampton were founded in 1885 as the wonderfully named St Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association. For the first 81 years of their existence, they were very similar to the Albion in that they plodded around in the third tier with a few flirtatious experiences with Division Two.
They reached the top division of English football in 1966 and stayed there for eight seasons. While back in Division Two, they shocked the mighty Manchester United to win the 1976 FA Cup which was followed two seasons later by promotion back to Division One.
The Saints remained a top division club for the next 27 years, an impressive feat given that they spent the majority of that time playing at the Dell, a tiny stadium in comparison to most of the rest of the division, especially once the Taylor Report had banned terracing.
A move to their new home at St Mary’s, with double the capacity, was meant to herald a bright new era for the Saints and put them on a more competitive footing with their Premier League rivals, largely through increasing their matchday revenue.
Rather hilariously, it had the complete opposite effect. Southampton soon tumbled all the way to League One via administration before climbing back to the top flight even quicker than they’d fallen thanks to back-to-back promotions achieved by our mate, Nigel Adkins. They’ve remained there every since.
Southampton last season
Southampton over the past few seasons have been a classic example of why you should always be careful what you wish for. They sacked Claude Puel despite the Frenchman delivering an eighth place finish and a day out in the League Cup Final because their fans found his football boring.
Since then, they’ve rattled through Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes and been involved in two relegation battles. Hasenhüttl replaced Hughes last December with the Saints looking deep in trouble towards the bottom of the table, eventually steering them to a 16th placed finish – three points ahead of the Albion.
Now, we don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but there is of course a cautionary tale in all this for Seagulls fans who wanted Hughton gone because of his dull football.
Just like Potter, Pellegrino also picked up four points from his first two games in charge. Another three for the Albion tomorrow would add further weight to the opinion that Bloom’s decision to replace Hughton with Potter isn’t going to result in Brighton doing “a Southampton”.
Head-to-head
Brighton and Southampton have met on 88 previous occasions and it is the Saints who have been victorious in nearly half of those, winning 40. The head-to-head between the two is actually pretty even in both the Southern League and Wartime Football, but when it comes to the Football League, the Albion’s record is dreadful with just eight wins from 45 matches.
Given that we first met in Division Three South in 1921, that means that we average one win over the Saints every 12 years. With our last victory coming on January 2nd 2012, that means we should expect to take three points off them again sometime around 2024.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record with Southampton
Last six meetings
Brighton 0-1 Southampton (Premier League, 30/03/19)
Southampton 2-2 Brighton (Premier League, 17/09/18)
Brighton 0-1 Southampton (League Cup Second Round, 28/08/18)
Southampton 1-1 Brighton (Premier League, 31/01/18)
Brighton 1-1 Southampton (Premier League, 29/10/17)
Brighton 3-0 Southampton (Championship, 02/01/12)
Three out of the four Premier League meetings between the two clubs since the Albion’s promotion have been drawn, which was largely as a result of both sides trying to prioritise not losing over winning. That also contributes to the Saints’ excellent record at the Amex, having tasted defeat just once in four visits.
Team news
Given that it was only a string of ridiculous saves from Lukasz Fabianski that denied the Albion three points against West Ham United last week, it seems pretty unlikely that Potter will make too many changes – if any at all.
You could argue that Pascal Gross might be sacrificed for the pace of Jurgen Locadia, but that would be harsh on the German.
Meanwhile, those younger members of the Twitterati who constantly clamour for Glenn Murray to be dropped in place of virtually anybody else would do well to remember that it was Murray who set up Leandro Trossard for the equaliser against the Hammers.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton at home
The Albion’s last win over Southampton was pretty good. Two days after we’d failed to manage a single shot on target in losing 2-0 away at the Championship’s bottom club Coventry City, many people assumed that the defeat had caused Gus Poyet to lose his mind as he threw Sexy Pete Brezovan and an 18-year-old Jake Forster-Caskey into his starting XI for the visit of the promotion chasing Saints.
Forster-Caskey ended up on the score sheet alongside a brace from Matt Sparrow as the Albion hammered their visitors 3-0. There was even the sight of some typical bastard behaviour from Adam El-Abd to get Saints star man Rickie Lambert sent off for good measure.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton at home
Sunday lunchtime kick offs are shit at the best of times, let alone when you’re horrifically hungover and still wearing makeup from a Halloween party the night before.
Thanks to Sky Sports and their desperation to show a ‘South Coast Derby’ live, that’s the torture we had to go through two seasons ago. What made it even worse was that the football was dire.
Hughton and Pellegrino could have shaken hands on a draw at midday and saved us the bother of having to sit through 90 minutes of tripe.
What do we like about Southampton?
It’s not Portsmouth. That’s about all we’ve got.
Prediction
Southampton don’t appear to have a goalkeeper as good as Fabianski on their books and so if the Albion can deliver a performance like last week, there is every chance of a first home win of the Potter era. 2-1 to the Seagulls.
