Brighton, Fulham and the battle for Europe

When Fulham and Brighton met at Craven Cottage back in August, the home fans celebrated their 2-1 victory as if they had just won the Champions League.

This was understandable. The Cottagers had been the ultimate yo-yo team, winning promotion from the Championship one season followed by relegation from the Premier League the next.

Their sole aim for 2022-23 was to ensure that this spell as a top flight club lasted for longer than a year. Every three points was precious, especially if it came against an Albion side who arrived in west London unbeaten.

Fast forward six months and Fulham are not merely aiming to survive. They have been the surprise package of the campaign so far and are challenging for a European place alongside Brighton.

Not many people would have predicted back in August that Brighton v Fulham in mid-February would be a six pointer in the battle for the top six. And yet here we are. Marco Silva has done a phenomenal job at the Cottage.

The bad news for the Albion is that they do not have a particularly good record against Fulham. Brighton have not beaten the Cottagers in the Premier League.

Grim experiences on the banks of the Thames including that August evening when Glow Up Graham Potter made a host of changes and started with no recongnised striker. The Seagulls paid the price for his fiddling.

Then there was the time Brighton went 2-0 up in January 2019, only to lose 4-2. It was unheard of for a Chris Hughton side to surrender a lead like that.

It proved to be the beginning of the end of the Hughton Era; the Albion won just two more Premier League games in the final five months of the 2018-19 season with Hughton unceremoniously dumped at the end of the campaign.

Even when Brighton beat Fulham twice in the 2016-17 season, the Cottagers were the better team. A 2-1 win at the Amex was fortuitous and everyone knew it.

Remarkably, the Albion pulled off an even bigger robbery at the Cottage. David Stockdale saved a penalty and Brighton scored twice in the space of 90 seconds – their only good 90 seconds all evening – through Tomer Hemed and Lewis Dunk to steal a 2-1 victory.

Ah yes, Dunk. Nothing sums up Brighton’s struggles against Fulham better than the Albion captain. As he edges closer to 400 games for the Seagulls, ask any Brighton supporter to name the one striker Dunk has struggled with in his career and they will all give the same answer – Aleksandar Mitrovic.

If Gareth Southgate ever wanted to publicly refute the claims that he does not pick Dunk for England purely because he is a Brighton player, then the Three Lions boss could present a highlight reel of Dunk against Mitrovic as his evidence. And it would be pretty hard to argue against.

There is something about the Serbian target man which turns Dunk to jelly. It has done the same with Adam Webster and Shane Duffy too, but is always more noticeable when the usually reliable Dunk is involved.

Mitrovic has been Fulham’s talisman since his arrival from Newcastle United in January 2018. He has scored over 100 times for the club and a succession of managers have relied on him as the main source of goals for promotion pushes and survival battles.

Silva though is different and so are his Cottagers team. Mitrovic still leads the scoring charts, but Fulham are now a side who fire even when their star striker is injured or unavailable.

12 players other than Mitrovic have been on the scoresheet for the Cottagers this season. Silva has turned them into a side who can score from anywhere.

It is not too dissimilar to the work done by Roberto De Zerbi. Brighton look less desperate for a new striker these days because De Zerbi has found a way to unlock goals from previous barren sources, Solly March and Adam Lallana being the prime examples.

The Albion will have to do without Lallana for the foreseeable future. De Zerbi confirmed in his pre-Fulham press conference that the veteran midfielder faces many months on the sidelines, a serious blow given how important he has been since the switch to 4-2-3-1.

Lallana’s absence though does give Alexis Mac Allister the chance to shine further forward, as he did in last week’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.

Mac Allister did everything but put the ball in the back of the net. On another day against different opponents who do not sacrifice chickens or eat sheep’s blood under a full moon to worship the goddess of luck before facing Brighton, he walks off with a hat-trick.

A Mac Allister hat-trick against Fulham would be nice. Kaoru Mitoma getting more involved than he managed at Selhurst Park good too. And if Robert Sanchez can avoid a costly mistake, fantastic.

The opportunity to win three Premier League games in a row at the Amex for only the third time lies ahead. Beating Fulham will not be easy because of the season they are enjoying, the Albion’s recent history against them and the Mitrovic factor.

But if Brighton want to make De Zerbi’s dreams of European football a reality, it is the sort of game they have to win.

Brighton v Fulham a six pointer in the race for Europe. It’s a mad world, isn’t it?