De Zerbi lives for games like Crystal Palace v Brighton
Trips to Selhurst Park are grim. The locals, the Metropolitan Police, the animal excrement on the streets, the stadium which resembles something from a Charles Dickens novel. Worst of all though is the appalling win record Brighton have away at Crystal Palace.
Since 1984, the Albion have managed a grand total of two victories at Selhurst. Eight Prime Ministers have come and gone, seven US Presidents, Dirty Den has died twice in EastEnders and yet Brighton fans traveling to Palace have had only McShane in the 79th minute and Anthony Knockaert magic giving them three points to return to Sussex with in that time.
One victory on average every 20 years. Ouch. What makes it particularly painful is the contrast with Palace, who have won four times at Brighton since the Amex opened its doors in 2011 alone.
Perhaps none of this should come as a surprise. For an entire generation, arguably two, Palace have had the upper hand in the rivalry.
They have nearly-always been the team finishing higher up the pyramid and even on the rare occasions when Brighton were above the Eagles, those bastards always found a way to take bragging rights anyway.
The 2011-12 Championship season saw Brighton in 10th with Palace in 17th; and yet they will always be able to point to being the first visiting team to win a league game at the Amex. FFS, Murray.
2012-13 was even worse. The Albion finish fourth, Palace finish fifth, Palace knock Brighton out of the Championship playoffs on their way to promotion to the Premier League and Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named is fired in the aftermath.
But now though, the tide appears to be changing. Both games were drawn 1-1 last season and with Brighton 9th and Palace 12th, there could be no doubting that it was the Seagulls who came out on top in every department.
Following the arrival of Roberto De Zerbi, this newly established gap appears to be widening. Albion fans are dreaming of Europe and chasing down Spurs in fifth with a side who are the most free scoring in the top flight right now.
Eagles fans are arguing amongst themselves on Twitter about who kissed who at a game and directing barbs at their owners for yet another season of mid table mediocrity at best.
It is to this background that Brighton decamp to Selhurst, further ahead of their rivals than they have been since the 1981-82 season when Palace were floundering in the second tier and the Albion secured 13th place in Division One under Mike Bailey.
Rarely have the Seagulls had the right to go to Palace and be confident of victory. This time though… if this Albion side can hammer Liverpool and Chelsea at home, beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, win handsomely at Southampton and Everton… they should be able to cope with Patrick Vieira’s stuttering Eagles, right?
Fingers crossed. But – and there is always a but, this one being a bloody big one – form and class often go out the window when it comes to games like these between two fierce rivals.
It is all very good being the better team – as Brighton have undoubtedly proven they are this season with their hunt for the top six – but you also have to want to win.
One of those rare Albion victories at Selhurst is a case in point. There was no way on God’s green earth that a Brighton team with central midfielder Paul Reid at left back and striker Gary Hart at right back should have been beating a Crystal Palace team 1-0 with players like Gabor Kiraly, Clinton Morrison, Jobi McAnuff, Danny Butterfield and Fitz Hall.
And yet they did. Paul McShane summoned the energy to produce a superhuman leap, contorted his body into a shape any doctor would tell you should be impossible and powered a header past Kiraly. That is what a Crystal Palace v Brighton game can do to you.
Glow Up Graham Potter failed to beat Palace once in six attempts. Even when Potter was still Brighton manager and anyone who questioned anything he did was deemed a bad fan, that record came under the spotlight.
Since Glow Up walked out for Chelsea and in the lead up to Roberto De Zerbi’s first taste of the rivalry, it has since been derided.
The charge against Potter was that he never understood what Brighton against Crystal Palace meant or became invested in it, explaining why his players were so lacklustre as to allow Christian Benteke a 94th minute winner at the Amex two seasons ago.
That was the year when Palace famously took four points from three shots on target across 180 minutes. Brighton had 45. Peak COVID campaign Potterball, that.
De Zerbi seems unlikely to follow Potter’s lead in being nonplussed by Palace. This is a man who celebrates every goal running around as if it is the winner in the Champions League final. Who in his second game in charge managed to start a touchline brawl with the normally placid Thomas Frank.
Italian football has its fair share of fierce rivalries and De Zerbi is a passionate bloke. And everything he said in his pre-Palace press conference would have been music to the ears of Brighton fans who want their head coach to invest in this game in particular.
“I live for this game. It’s an honour to play this game,” De Zerbi told the gathered press on Friday afternoon. “We must play a bold game, aggressive game, but I don’t want to lose our quality, our style of play.”
“The first part of the season has been fantastic in terms of results, in terms of quality of play, and we have to continue in this way. But this is a different game.”
“The emotions are the most important part of football and we have to feel the emotion in the football. But we have to be clear to the other things, to be focused on the game, on our quality, on our style of play, but we have to feel it’s a different game.”
“We want to beat them for sure. We want to make our fans happy. I love this kind of game. We are ready to play.”
Victory over the enemy is not the only reason for beating Palace, of course. We said last week before facing Plucky Little Bournemouth that a win against opponents who Brighton hardly ever defeat would feel like a milestone in the development of De Zerbi’s Albion.
The same goes for Palace. Brighton need three points in their quest for Europe regardless of who the opposition are.
But if those three points were to come at a venue where they have only won twice since Margaret Thatcher was on the throne, then it would be a further sign that this Albion side are something different.
Excitement mixed with trepidation are always the feelings before 90 minutes of football in Croydon. If Brighton were to lose, then it would not be the end of the world.
Only one club in the Crystal Palace v Brighton rivalry is currently on an upwards trajectory aiming for the top six and silverware, and it is not them.
Defeat at Selhurst will not change that, nor will it likely propel Palace to finish above Brighton. The Albion are the better, more successful team right now.
Victory though, that would be sweet and potentially looked back upon if we are all in Poland on a Thursday night come October as another big moment in the journey towards European football.
Bring it on.
