Leicester 1-1 Brighton: Björn sitter vid ratten i en annan sen dragning
Even before Leicester 1-1 Brighton, I loved Sweden. IKEA is one of the greatest shops in the world, ABBA make incredible music, fruit cider is a wonderful drink, and their national delicacies include pick n mix, meatballs and slathering mashed potato on top of a hot dog.
Add Bjorn Hamberg to the list of brilliant things about Sweden. Hamberg found himself thrown in at the deep end for the trip to the King Power Stadium, managing Brighton in the absence of Covid-19 hit Graham Potter and Billy Reid.
How many other Premier League clubs would have got on with playing without a word of complaint despite being without their manager or assistant? Or their captain and vice captain, for that matter?
Not many is the answer, as evidenced over the past month by Arsenal calling off the North London Derby with Spurs because of one positive test amongst their playing squad.
Liverpool have been even more shady, miraculously returning a load of positive results which then in fact turned out to be inaccurate, having decided they did not fancy taking on the Gunners in their Carabao Cup semi final.
Brighton minus Potter, Reid, Lewis Dunk, Adam Lallana, Shane Duffy and Yves Bissouma had more justification for seeking a postponement than many other top flight clubs have done.
And yet the Albion went to Leicester, played outrageously well in the second half and could have even won the game. That it could happen with Hamberg at the Wheel is testament to Brighton building a club and culture that goes beyond individuals.
Even in absences, there is somebody waiting to step into the vacant role thanks to succession planning the likes of which Henry VIII could only dream of.
Speaking of kings of old, Leicester has been as happy a hunting ground for Brighton in recent years as it was for Richard III. Since the King Power opened in 2002, the Albion have only won there twice.
One of those should have an asterisk next to it as well; the 4-1 victory delivered by Oscar Garcia in April 2014 came whilst Leicester’s players were suffering with almighty hangovers having secured the Championship title a few days earlier.
Brighton made two changes from the 1-1 draw with Chelsea in midweek. Out went Tariq Lamptey and Danny Welbeck and in came Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard. The two men relegated to the bench would go onto have a huge impact on the game by full time.
The Albion were so sloppy in possession throughout the first half that you wondered if Hamberg had forgotten to tell his players they were wearing hyper-turq.
Leicester were the better side and should have gone into the interval in the lead. James Maddison crashed a free kick into the side netting and Ademola Lookman was denied when he went through one-on-one by a huge save from Robert Sanchez.
Things did not remain level for too long into the second half. Virtually straight from kick off, Maddison hit a deflected effort which Harvey Barnes diverted towards goal.
Sanchez parried and the loose ball fell to Patson Daka who steered home. Enock Mwepu’s Zambian international teammate was scoring his ninth goal of the season having signed from Red Bull Salzburg for £23 million in the summer – proof for the Albion perhaps that Premier League capable strikers do exist within their price range.
Potter had seen enough watching via his moody HesGoal stream with excited Dutch commentary and so the message was relayed to Hamberg to make a change on the hour mark.
Lamptey and Welbeck came on and Brighton were suddenly transformed, going onto become the dominant side over the final 30 minutes.
Leicester seemed completely unsure of how to cope with Lamptey and that panic spread to the opposite flank, where Marc Cucurella suddenly found himself with miles more space in which to cause chaos of his own.
The newly introduced duo combined within 10 minutes of entering proceedings, Lamptey crossing for Welbeck whose header was kept out by Kasper Schmeichel.
There was nothing that the Danish goalkeeper could do when Welbeck got his next sight of goal. Maupay somehow found himself out on the right flank, delivering a fantastic ball onto the header of Welbeck who powered past Schmeichel with eight minutes remaining to make it Leicester 1-1 Brighton.
It was the eighth time already in 2021-22 that the Albion have scored in the final 10 minutes. Not only does this penchant for grabbing late goals result in valuable points, but it is also creating an aura around this Albion squad amongst the rest of the Premier League for never knowing when they are beaten.
Opponents know that when they face Brighton, it is not over until the fat lady sings. That can lend itself to nervousness late on as no lead is safe, something we saw in the Leicester ranks as the Foxes became increasingly defensive as the game wore on, frantically clinging onto the one-goal lead that they knew might not be enough.
All the momentum was now with the Albion for the final 10. Alexis Mac Allister sent over a typically pinpoint corner which Dan Burn met with a thumping header cleared off the line.
Then Schemichel showed why he is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, pulling off a miracle save to keep out a low strike from Trossard as it finished Leicester 1-1 Brighton.
Once again though, this was a point that felt more like three because of the late drama. 12 draws means that not only is there still a possibility that the Albion could qualify for Europe, but Brighton stand a good chance of breaking the Premier League record of 17 stalemates in a single 38 game season.
Forget pining for a hot dog covered in mashed potato on holiday in Sweden – Brighton could be heading there in the Europa League or Conference in 2022-23, silently, unnoticed and without complaining that Covid-19 left them with Björn sitter vid ratten.
