Brighton 1-3 Crystal Palace: Hurzeler, we have a problem
Hurzeler, we have a problem. Brighton 1-3 Crystal Palace saw the Albion’s woeful record against clubs in the bottom six of the Premier League go on – with neither head coach nor players seeming to have any idea of how to overcome the issue.
Forget who the opposition were on Sunday at the Amex for a second. One win, four draws, one defeat against the bottom six is not acceptable for a club with aspirations to challenge for Europe after a £193 million summer spending spree.
The Palace factor though has added an extra dimension to the head loss. Brighton were outthought and outfought by their arch rivals on their own patch. Not good enough.
Blame has subsequently been thrown at everyone and anyone. Hurzeler. Lewis Dunk. Tariq Lamptey. The recruitment team for signing 274 wingers and number 10s but not strengthening the defence.
Referee Michael Oliver for getting in the way of Carlos Baleba as Palace broke in the build up to the opening goal.
Mr Oliver might have played an unintentional part in helping the Eagles into the lead, but he was not responsible for the shit defending which led to goals two and three.
The problem for me is that Brighton began the season by outperforming how good a team they actually are, raising expectations and leading to a lot of false hope.
Two players are the reason for this – Danny Welbeck and Bart Verbruggen. Welbeck was scoring goals for fun at one end of the pitch, netting six in nine games to make 2024-25 his joint-most prolific season for a decade before even reaching the quarter way mark.
Verbruggen was making save after save at the other, meaning Brighton conceded far less goals than they ought to thanks to top class performances from their goalkeeper. Performances good enough to attract the interest of Bayern Munich, if you believe the rumour mill.
It was always unlikely that both Welbeck and Verbruggen could maintain such sensational form over a 38 game season. And now with Welbeck struggling for fitness and Verbruggen not stopping as much, Brighton are not winning as much. Or at all.
Hurzeler talked afterwards about learning lessons and trusting processes. But this was the sixth time this season that the Albion have conceded two goals in the space of nine minutes.
Were it not for controversial offside decisions ruling out efforts for Manchester United and Southampton, it would be eight. Had Antoine Semenyo’s volley for Plucky Little Bournemouth been a couple of millimetres lower, it would have crashed into the back of the net rather that the bar.
Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton instead finishes Bournemouth 2-2 Brighton. And that would take the total to nine.
From the outside looking in, it appears as if no lessons are being learnt when it comes to one goal leading to another.
Palace started their quickfire double on 27 minutes. The Eagles earned a corner from the move in which Mr Oliver prevented Baleba breaking up a counter attack.
This first corner was cleared behind for another. Will Hughes delivered and the Albion’s defending was awful, enabling Trevoh Chalobah to scramble home.
Six minutes later and Ismaila Sarr made it 2-0. Lamptey seemed to forget that he makes Bilbo Baggins look like the Jolly Green Giant and tried to win a header from a Palace free kick forward.
He only succeeded in ending up on his back on the floor, leaving Tyrick Mitchell to gallop away down the flank. Mitchell crossed and neither Dunk nor Pervis Estupinan were able to prevent Sarr heading home at the far post.
The Albion barely threatened through the first half of Brighton 1-3 Palace, other than an early Kaortu Mitoma one-on-one saved by Dean Henderson.
Things did at least improve slightly after the break once Julio Enciso was introduced. It was an important 45 minutes for Enciso, who has struggled for game time this season.
When he has stepped onto the pitch, he has done very little. To the point most Seagulls supporters now believe a January loan move should be considered.
Enciso made the most of the opportunity by being the Brighton’s best player though the second 45. He drew a brilliant one-handed save from Henderson shortly after Dunk forced the Palace goalkeeper into a strong stop with a header from a free kick.
Hurzeler made a triple substitution with Simon Adingra, Evan Ferguson and Brajan Gruda all entering the field. The Albion though were starting to fade and that enabled Palace to wrap up the three points with a third goal on 81.
Dunk missed what looked like a simple interception, enabling Sarr to run clear and beat Verbruggen. Cue a mass exodus from every home section in a complete role reversal of the away end emptying early nine months previously when Roberto De Zerbi oversaw a 4-1 win over Palace.
Those Albion supporters who stayed to the bitter end saw Palace take pity on Brighton, putting the ball into their own net to give the Seagulls a consolation.
Henderson failed to gather a corner, a game of pinball broke out and the ball eventually crossed the line off Marc Guehi to make it Brighton 1-3 Palace.
And so having beaten Manchester United, Spurs and Manchester City at the Amex this season, the Albion lost their unbeaten home record under Hurzeler to Palace of all teams.
One Albion supporter posted afterwards on Twitter “This is not Brighton.” But this is Brighton. Beat the best teams before losing at home to your biggest rivals who sit 15th in the table.
It has always been this way. And it probably always will be.
