Match Review: Brighton 2-0 Plucky Little Bournemouth

In all of human history, there haven’t been many Christmas miracles like the one we saw at the Amex on Saturday 28th December 2019.

A virgin giving birth to the son of God in a stable in Bethlehem is good. But it’s no Alireza Jahanabakhsh scoring in a 2-0 win over Plucky Little Bournemouth, is it?

Jahanbakhsh has been a Brighton player for 18 months. In that time, the £17m signing had contributed a grand total of zero goals and zero assists.

In fact, he hadn’t even looked like scoring, except when hitting the bar last season against Southampton. And when you can remember someone hitting the bar because they’ve done bugger all else in their Albion career, it kind of says everything.

There were some Seagulls supporters who put Jahanbakhsh’s woeful debut campaign down to Chris Hughton. The theory went that the former Brighton boss’ negative tactics meant we were never going to see the best out of a winger who scored 21 times in the Eredivisie for AZ Alkmaar before his big money move to the Premier League.

Which kind of ignored the fact that those same tactics didn’t stop Solly March, Anthony Knockaert and Jose Izquierdo from scoring and creating goals.

Still, Graham Potter’s arrival would change all that they said. An attack-minded manager would unlock Jahanbakhsh’s ability. Except it didn’t. If anything, the Iranian’s woes got worse.

Before the Bournemouth game, Potter had afforded him just 22 minutes of Premier League football. That came in a substitutes appearance in the 2-2 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers. And Jahanbakhsh still looked like he’d won a cornflakes competition to be a professional footballer.

There was a lot of surprise then when Potter named Jahanbakhsh in his starting line up for the visit of Bournemouth. The Albion manager did know this was a must-win game, right? That should Bournemouth extend their unbeaten league run over the Seagulls to 11 matches, we could slip into the relegation zone? Hardly the type of fixture to be experimenting with unproductive duds.

Well, what do we know? Within three minutes, Jahanbakhsh had opened the scoring. Christmas miracle part one. 87 minutes later and Brighton had their first victory over the Cherries for 12 years. Christmas miracle part two.

Jahanbakhsh’s surprise recall was part of a tactical shift from Potter as we saw him use traditional wingers for the first time. There was also a shift in formation with 4-3-3 getting an airing.

Seven changes from the Boxing Day defeat at Tottenham Hotspur followed as a result, with a midfield three of Davy Propper, Yves Bissouma and Aaron Mooy and a front line of Jahanbakhsh, Neal Maupay and Leanrdo Trossard.

No Dale Stephens. No Adam Webster. No Pascal Gross. The boo boys three favourites all rested. Christ knows who they would have blamed had Bournemouth inflicted their usual misery on us.

The difference between a Potter 4-3-3 and a Chris Hughton 4-3-3 was evident from the moment that Jahanbakhsh drove the Albion into the lead. Under Hughton, the formation was very rigid. Players never deviated from their positions.

Under Potter, Jahanbakhsh and Trossard were constantly switching wings, leaving Bournemouth’s full backs more confused than a vegan at a hog roast.

Jahanbakhsh began the game on the right and yet within the first 180 seconds, he popped up on the left which was where his opener was scored from. Maupay laid the ball back to Jahanbakhsh and he made no mistake, hitting a crisp strike across Aaron Ramsdale and into the bottom corner.

Jahanbakhsh’s reaction showed how much the goal meant to him. He had a tear in his eye as every other Albion player on the pitch joined in to celebrate.

Compare that to Brighton’s other forward flops. Jurgen Locadia spent his time out of the team making shit music and looking like he didn’t give a toss about playing football.

Florin Andone blamed everyone at the club for not giving him an opportunity despite being a walking red card, before adding that he didn’t want to play for Brighton again.

Unlike those two, Jahanbakhsh never complained. Even when rumours began to swirl about Potter wanting to offload him in January, he said he would get his head down and work hard to earn a chance.

Say what you want about his underwhelming 18 months as a Brighton player so far, but nobody can now doubt his professionalism or say that his first Premier League goal wasn’t richly deserved, if for nothing else then his desire to prove himself.

One man who doesn’t need to prove himself is Aaron Mooy. It seems mad that just four months ago, there were Brighton fans wondering why we were taking a bloke on loan from the Championship – especially when we already had one very capable number 10 on our hands in Gross.

The answer to that is because Mooy is out-of-this-world. No other player in this Brighton squad could have scored the goal he did against Bournemouth.

“Dennis Bergkamp-esque” is how it was described on Sky Sports. Praise doesn’t come much higher than being compared to one of the silkiest players ever to lace up a boot – and it was completely justified, Mooy controlling Trossard’s cross on his chest before ghosting past Chris Mepham and stroking the ball past Ramsdale.

Not only did Mooy’s strike put itself in pole position for Goal of the Season at the halfway stage of the campaign, but it also killed the game off. Something that Brighton have struggled to do this season.

Bournemouth were poor but given the Albion’s history against them, you could never count them out of it until Mooy wrapped things up with 10 minutes to go.

Eddie Howe and the Cherries usually find a way to prevent the Albion winning and often it’s via some extremely questionable officiating.

There was the penalty awarded to the visitors at Withdean in the 96th minute of their 2010 visit after Bournemouth captain Steve Fletcher handled in the box. The only time we’ve ever seen a spot kick awarded to a side because their striker has caught the ball. Final score, Brighton 1-1 Bournemouth.

Three-and-a-half years later and Lewis Grabban won a penalty in the Cherries’ New Year’s Day visit to the Amex. Ingio Calderon’s crime on this occasion was producing a perfect tackle which saw him come away with possession. Not one Bournemouth player appealed and yet somehow, they received another spot kick. Final score, Brighton 1-1 Bournemouth.

Throw in Lewis Dunk receiving a second yellow card a year ago because Mike Dean couldn’t tell the difference between the Albion’s Brighton-born captain and Mali international Bissouma and you can see why Brighton needed a second goal.

They should have had it long before. VAR ruled a neat Dan Burn effort out for offside due to the fact that Burn’s missing finger was a millimetre in front of a Bournemouth defender seven phases before he scored.

That this wasn’t even the worst VAR decision of the weekend tells you everything about the shit shower that the system has become.

Bissouma hit a post and both Mooy and Maupay went close with a couple of long range testers. When Mooy did eventually strike late on, it was a goal greeted with relief more than anything. There would be no need for the “We played well but didn’t get the points we deserved” line to be dusted off this week.

Which was just as well. 2019 hasn’t been a year that the Albion will look back on too fondly. We’ve won just eight league games in 12 months and only five at the Amex.

The best manager the club has ever had was sacked after a terrible run of form and we suffered a heaviest home defeat in 36 years.

That was of course against Bournemouth. There was something quite cathartic about ending an annus horribilis with victory against the same club who inflicted upon us the lowest point of a year full of low points.

A sign perhaps that 2020 will be a vast improvement on the previous 12 months. More wins, more clean sheets and more miracles please.