Brighton hope for a less frightening Fulham experience
There was a time not so long ago when Brighton fans used to look forward to trips to Fulham. A nice, easy journey. A proper football ground at Craven Cottage. And three guaranteed points.
Even when the Albion did not play well, they tended to come away from the banks of the Thames with victory. Exhibit A – the 2-1 win in the 2016-17 Championship promotion season.
The Cottagers were miles, miles better than Brighton that day. And yet a David Stockdale penalty save coupled with Tomer Hemed and Lewis Dunk scoring twice in 90 seconds secured a scarcely deserved win.
It was the the game when the penny suddenly dropped for a lot of Seagulls supporters that Chris Hughton and that group of players just might go onto secure a place in the Premier League. A special, special day and night in West London.
Fulham away the previous season had given us one of our first glimpses that Hughton had turned Brighton from relegation candidates into promotion contenders over the summer of 2015.
The first away game of the campaign sent the Seagulls to the Cottage on a balmy August afternoon. Another 2-1 win, another Hemed penalty.
A few days before Hughton was appointed manager and it was Nathan Jones who set the good times rolling for Brighton at Fulham in December 2014.
Caretaker manager following the belated sacking of Sami Hyypia, Jones oversaw a huge victory – 2-1 of course – which gave Hughton the perfect platform from which to keep the Albion out of League One.
Those were the days, hey? Because since both clubs joined the Premier League, Brighton’s form at Craven Cottage has gone from good to frightening.
The 2018-19 season saw the Albion blow a 2-0 lead in the snow to lose 4-2. It was a disastrous result and one you can trace Hughton’s sacking four months later almost directly from.
Brighton never recovered from the psychological blow of that January night, winning only twice in the final 18 Premier League matches of the campaign.
The lockdown years saw a dull 0-0 in front of an empty stadium notable only for Robert Sanchez keeping a clean sheet after replacing Maty Ryan in goal and Tariq Lamptey limping off, never to be seen again for nine months.
Having gone undefeated through their opening four games of the 2022-23 season, Graham Potter opted to do a very Potter-esque thing and pick his side for the Albion’s most recent visit to Craven Cottage using a roulette wheel.
The result was a disjointed display, conceding twice in the space of seven minutes, Dunk putting a comical own goal past Sanchez, and a first defeat of the campaign.
It actually proved to be Glow Up’s final loss as Albion manager; a little over a week later and he was slithering off for the bright lights of Chelsea. Lol.
What then has turned Fulham from an often-fruitful away day to one where points and joy are in short supply? It can probably be pinned on two things.
First – Aleksandar Mitrovic. No centre forward has bullied and tormented Dunk in the way Mitrovic used to. And if Dunk could not handle the Serbian powerhouse, what chance did Shane Duffy or Adam Webster have?
The good news is this is the first time Brighton have gone to Craven Cottage to face the Cottagers minus Mitrovic. He forced through a summer move to the Saudi Pro League, trashing his reputation as Fulham’s record goal scorer in the process.
Fulham having no Mitrovic did not stop them taking a point from a 1-1 draw at the Amex in October, of course. Which brings us nicely onto the other aspect of the Cottagers approach Brighton struggle with – their gamesmanship.
Marco Silva has turned Fulham into the kings of timewasting. Highlights from the meeting four months ago included two visiting players been unfortunate enough to both go down injured during the same Brighton attack, as captured beautifully in the Instagram post above.
Bernd Leno provided an even better moment, requiring treatment for cramp despite: A) Being the goalkeeper, and B) Not having touched the ball for about 10 minutes at that point.
The Cottagers combine the perfect combination of low block defensive tactics, slowing everything down and taking the sting out of games which Brighton tend to struggle with.
There is hope, however. This will be Roberto De Zerbi’s first visit to Craven Cottage. His two previous interactions with Fulham – a loss and a draw – came at the Amex, where defensive tactics are more acceptable than playing at home.
If Silva opts to put the Cottagers onto more of a front foot, that will play into Brighton’s hands as they seek a first ever top flight win over Fulham.
That is the theory, anyway.
