Brentford 0-0 Brighton: As entertaining as steaming wallpaper
Having recently bought a house requiring renovation, I have spent a lot of the past five weeks steaming wallpaper. And thanks to Brentford 0-0 Brighton, I now have a newfound appreciation for how fun and entertaining steaming wallpaper actually is.
The official Albion website used their normal Alastair Campbell levels of spin to try and make this seem like a worthwhile evening at the Gtech Stadium.
Six shots on target, 24 shots overall, 67 percent possession screamed the club. But all that proved was that these stats can be meaningless. The cold, hard facts were that Mark Flekken was never forced into what you would call a serious save all evening.
The closest Brighton came to breaking the deadlock was late on, when substitute Danny Welbeck was denied by a fine block from Kristoffer Ajer.
That the highlights on the Albion website lasted a little over two minutes with 30 seconds dedicated to the incident where Lewis Dunk wanted a first half penalty was more telling of just how dull Brentford 0-0 Brighton was.
Reading through Twitter, there was almost a 50-50 split in opinion amongst Albion supporters regarding the penalty.
Yoane Wissa and the Brighton captain ended up wrestling with each other as a corner came into the box, leading VAR to advise Andy Madley to head to the pitch side monitor for a look.
For only the second time in the Premier League this season, that did not result in a referee changing his decision. Mr Madley concluded that Dunk had grabbed Wissa first and so rather than a Brighton penalty, Brentford were awarded a free kick.
It was probably the correct decision. Often, the best way to make judgement on what VAR gets up to is to imagine if it were the other way around.
Had Brentford had been given a spot kick when one of their players wrestled an Albion player in the box first, we would all be be livid – and rightly so.
Mr Madley therefore deserves credit for a surprisingly sensible bit of refereeing and using VAR exactly how it was intended. Might need to stick on the BBC News to check if hell has frozen over.
The opening 10 minutes of Brentford 0-0 Brighton were dominated by Carlos Baleba, who really has come of age in the past two matches. He deserves to keep his place even when Billy Gilmour is fit enough to return.
Baleba gave another all-action display away from home which had shades of Yves Bissouma in the way he broke up play and tried to get Brighton on the front foot, just as he had in the 2-1 defeat at Liverpool on Easter Sunday.
One such instance of Baleba regaining possession for the Albion saw him instigate a break through Pascal Gross and Adam Lallana, which ended with the former dragging a shot wide.
That should at least silence the conspiracy theorists at Manchester City and Arsenal, who reckoned Lallana deliberately missed a chance to equalise in the final minute at Anfield having earlier in the day given an interview saying he was desperate for Liverpool to win the title.
Nothing intentional about that poor piece of finishing on Merseyside; Lallana has never been convincing in front of goal since joining the Albion, other than a brief golden period between November 2022 and January 2023 when Roberto De Zerbi first swept into the Amex.
Wissa should have done better when volleying wide with just Bart Verbruggen to beat and Ivan Toney could only put a weak effort straight into the arms of the Seagulls goalkeeper after escaping Jan Paul van Hecke. < Insert joke about betting on Toney to score that sort of chance here >.
One reason to be cheerful for Brighton was the return of Joao Pedro from injury after eight weeks out. The Albion’s top scorer looked lively and had a couple of half chances of his own, putting both meekly straight at Flekken.
The non-penalty incident arrived in first half stoppage time but any hopes that might have sparked an increase in entertainment levels after the break were soon dashed as the second 45 minutes proved almost as turgid the opening.
Pedro delivered a far post cross to Veltman pushing on from right back. The result though was a defender’s finish from the Dutchman, who lifted the ball over the bar, the stand and into the kitchen of one of the flats behind the stadium.
Seemingly inspired by that, fellow defender Igor Julio went for goal from distance with a shot which looked relatively close at the time but in reality was closer to the corner flag than troubling Flekken.
The introductions of Julio Enciso and Welbeck gave Brighton a little more in attack, leading to their best openings coming in the final 20 minutes.
Enciso and Pedro were involved in the move which put Welbeck clear, only for Ajer to make an outstanding flying block when it looked like Flekken might finally have something to think about. Pedro headed the rebound harmlessly into the arms of the Bees goalkeeper.
A quickly taken Igor throw was then cleverly flicked on by Enciso, leaving Welbeck to gallop towards Flekken from halfway.
Dat Guy used the outside of his boot to produce a cross-shot which was both wide of the far post and not close enough for the supporting Jakub Moder to reach.
And that was that. Positives from Brentford 0-0 Brighton? The Albion did not lose is the obvious one, remaining two points behind West Ham United in seventh. If the top eight qualify for Europe, Brighton are still very much in the race.
Verburggen started a fourth game in a row which hopefully suggests De Zerbi’s goalkeeper rotation policy is over and there was a well-deserved clean sheet against opponents who managed 31 shots against Manchester United at the weekend.
It is always nice to see Tony Bloom join us mere mortals in the away end too at the Gtech Stadium, once again the Albion owner shunning the boardroom at Brentford due to his longstanding grudge against Bees chairman Matthew Benham.
And there were no reports of Dick Knight struggling to get into the stadium, nor of him telling staff “I’m the president of this f**ing football club” out of frustration at his ticket not working.
Nobody wants to see a repeat of the unedifying/ridiculous scenario of the man who saved the Albion having to release a public statement explaining why he has given himself a 10 game ban.
Negatives? It is back to the steaming wallpaper for me this Sunday, although at least now it will not seem quite as tedious after Brentford 0-0 Brighton.
