De Zerbi won’t let Brighton waste big semi with Manchester United
The semi final of the FA Cup is here and Brighton go into their Wembley date with Manchester United as favourites with some bookmakers and pundits.
A decade ago, not even the most potent of magic mushroom trips would have made that opening sentence make sense.
The most successful club ever in English football expected to lose in the semi final of the world’s greatest cup competition against opponents who once lost 1-0 at home to nine-man Walsall? What absolute nonsense.
Three words have led to this most implausible of scenarios coming to pass. Roberto. De. Zerbi. Brighton have been on a steady upward climb since Tony Bloom became chairman in 2009, but De Zerbi has supercharged it over the past six months.
Where will it lead? To silverware? Europe? A systematic rewriting of the Brighton & Hove Albion history books? Anything seems possible.
Not wanting to look beyond the end of our noses, let us focus on Wembley and Brighton taking on the famous Manchester United in the semi final of the FA Cup.
This is the Seagulls’ second trip to the cathedral of football of the Bloom era and it feels very different to the first.
In 2019’s FA Cup semi final, relegation threatened Brighton were never doing anything more than making up the numbers against a Manchester City side chasing the quadruple.
Chris Hughton’s side had benefitted from a gentle run to Wembley, and even then nearly cocked it up on a couple of occasions.
They needed extra time in a replay to beat Championship side West Brom in round four. Brighton then trailed Millwall 2-0 going into the final five minutes of their quarter final at a raucous Den.
DJ Jurgen Locadia of all people pulled one back and then Lions goalkeeper David Martin made an extraordinary error, pushing an off-target cross-shot free kick from Solly March into his own goal in the sixth minute of injury time. The Albion went onto scrape through via penalties.
At Wembley, Gabriel Jesus scored after four minutes and that was that. The Citizens never needed to get out of first gear, let alone move through second, third, fourth or heaven forbid, fifth.
City saved that instead for Watford, who they humiliated 6-0 to record the biggest winning margin in FA Cup final history since 1903. Such was the PTSD inflicted by City that day, the Hornets were relegated from the Premier League a year later.
Four years on and Brighton head to Wembley in a very different place. To get this far, they overcame a banana skin of a tie against Championship promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough.
The Albion then eliminated holders Liverpool, showed that they could do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke and swatted aside League Two Grimsby Town.
Like in 2019, the west end of Wembley will still be a sea of blue and white. The songs will still flow as freely as the Jaegermeister in The Green Man. Baker Street will still be packed with the sight and smell of smoke in the air.
But the 35,000 Brighton fans heading to Wembley do so this time full of confidence for an FA Cup semi final against Manchester United.
So too do the players, thanks to the way in which De Zerbi has changed the mentality of the club. Graham Potter wanted everyone to think a 0-0 draw at home against Norwich was an incredible result. De Zerbi says the Albion should dream of Europe and winning trophies.
De Zerbi’s enthusiasm and personality are infectious. He has made believers of his players and even the most glass-half-empty of supporters.
A Brighton v Manchester United FA Cup semi final match preview on which is WAB adamant the Albion can win is the ultimate proof of that.
The days of this website being described as “run by negative pricks” have long since, passed largely thanks to De Zerbi. The whole of Brighton believes.
Bookmakers of course are not so easily swayed by emotion or passion. They make Brighton favourites for a reason, even with United third in the table and the Albion eighth.
Brighton have beaten Chelsea twice, Liverpool twice, eliminated Arsenal from the League Cup and would have beaten Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were it not for a quite astounding showcase of incompetence from the match officials and VAR.
The Seagulls thrive against the European Super League Elite Six. Brighton also seem to have developed something of a hold over United, winning the past two meetings between the clubs by an aggregate score of 6-1.
Those victories came with Glow Up Graham at the helm, whom the world now realises is an inferior manager to De Zerbi. The mind boggles at the possibilities of the damage DeZerbiBall could inflict on the Red Devils.
With the tag of favourites and such expectations comes pressure, but as De Zerbi said in his pre-match press conference: “If we want to progress, if want to improve our mentality, we have to play natural.”
“We have not to suffer pressure or maybe it’s better we have to love this pressure. We have to get used to feeling this pressure because to play this type of game has to be an honour, not a problem.”
Whilst De Zerbi was happy to talk to the media about pressure, he was less forthcoming on player availability. Joel Veltman and Evan Ferguson limped off in the first of half of last week’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge and were in a race against time to be fit for Wembley.
Both would be huge losses. Shifting Pascal Gross to right back opens up a space in midfield for one of Julio Enciso, Billy Gilmour, Yasin Ayari or Facundo Buonanotte to come in. Or De Zerbi could start Deniz Undav alongside Danny Welbeck in a front two.
None of those five replacements has played much first team football this season, although Enciso has shone from the bench with goals against Chelsea and Plucky Little Bournemouth this past month.
He has already started making waves in English football; a star showing in a FA Cup semi final would bring him to the attention of the entire planet.
De Zerbi has much to ponder. The one thing you can guarantee is that he will not let Brighton waste this opportunity to reach their second FA Cup final, 40 years on from 1983.
From the day he walked through the door, De Zerbi told fans to dream of Champions League football. Of challenging for trophies. He has referred to Brighton as a big club.
On this occasion, Albion fans see Wembley as a big day out and a special game. You see that in the debates swirling online and in WhatsApp groups. What shirt to wear? Which train ticket is best? What pub is everyone going to?
If De Zerbi has his way, trips to Wembley and cup semi finals will eventually become the norm for Brighton. Just another away game Seagulls fans go into with the expectation of winning.
The bookmakers think the Albion will be back under the arch on June 3rd playing Manchester City. If they are right, this is going to be quite the day. Bring it on.
