Match Preview: Brighton kick off season-defining run away at Fulham
Using the phrase “season defining” in the title for our Fulham v Brighton match preview could be seen as a little dramatic.
But then you take a look at the Albion’s upcoming fixtures over the festive period and realise that what happens between now and January 2nd may define not just the current campaign, but Graham Potter’s entire reign.
Just four teams sit below Brighton in the Premier League table. Fulham and Sheffield United are two of those and they make up the Albion’s next two matches.
Then comes a trip to high flying West Ham United follow by back-to-back home games against an Arsenal side who are lurching from crisis result to crisis result and Wolverhampton Wanderers, opponents who Brighton rarely lose to.
Supporters are beginning to openly question whether Potter is the right man for the job and the players looked completely lost when Leicester City blitzed three goals in 17 minutes at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.
If Brighton were to go down against Fulham and the Blades, surrendering their cherished record of never having been in the relegation zone since winning promotion to the top flight in 2017 in the process, then the noise about Potter’s future is only going to increase.
Defeat on Brighton’s last visit to Craven Cottage was the first sign that Chris Hughton’s management was beginning to unravel. Two years on and the Albion have to make sure that history does not repeat itself in West London.
Fulham this season
Stepping up to the Premier League is always a tough ask for the side who wins promotion through the Championship playoffs, but it looked a particularly onerous challenge for Fulham coming into the 2020-21 season.
The suspension of English football during lockdown left a shortened ‘summer’ between one campaign ending and another beginning. That gave the Cottagers less time to recover from a gruelling 49 game league season and less time to strengthen their squad with reinforcements ahead of their return to the top flight.
It was no surprise then to see Scott Parker’s side struggle in the opening weeks. They drew one and lost five of their first six matches, at which point an immediate return to the second tier looked like the only possible outcome.
Something has clicked in recent weeks though. A combination of Fulham’s new signings suddenly gelling and Parker settling on an effective counter attacking style using players who possess more speed than you find at a rave in a disused factory has seen the Cottagers start to put points on the board.
They have gone from relegation fodder to knowing that a victory over Brighton would lift them above the Seagulls and potentially out of the bottom three.
Recent form
Like the Albion, Fulham have put two Premier League wins on the board so far. Their first victory came against West Bromwich Albion at the start of November.
Their second came a fortnight ago when they shocked Leicester City by winning 2-1 at the King Power Stadium – the same Leicester City who blew Brighton away. And whilst the Seagulls were busy getting turned over in the East Midlands, champions Liverpool were lucky to leave Fulham with a draw.
Brighton could not have picked a worse time to face Fulham. The Cottagers are hitting form at the exact point when the Albion’s is deserting them.
Brighton v Fulham head-to-head
Fulham are one of Brighton’s oldest opponents with the first meeting between the clubs having taken place in Southern League Division Two in the 1901-02.
Since then, there have been 71 clashes across 13 different competitions. Fulham lead the way in the head-to-head and by a fair distance, winning over half the previous encounters with 38 victories to their name.
Brighton have 25 wins leaving only eight draws. Four of those have come in the 13 most recent clashes; a 2-2 at the Amex in September 2018 and three consecutive 0-0s across the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Fulham
Last six meetings
• Fulham 4-2 Brighton (Premier League, 29/01/19)
• Brighton 2-2 Fulham (Premier League, 01/09/18)
• Fulham 1-2 Brighton (Championship, 02/01/17)
• Brighton 2-1 Fulham (Championship, 26/11/16)
• Brighton 5-0 Fulham (Championship, 15/04/16)
• Fulham 1-2 Brighton (Championship, 15/08/15)
This a more rosy looking section of our Fulham v Brighton match preview, isn’t it? Except of course the last six results are a little misleading as the Cottagers really should have taken all six points off Hughton’s Albion in 2016-17.
They say that the sign of a good team is winning when you do not play well and Brighton were woeful against Fulham that season and yet still came away with six points.
The trip to Craven Cottage was particularly ridiculous. For 89 minutes, the Albion were dreadful, only to see goals from Tomer Hemed and Lewis Dunk in the space of 90 seconds coupled with a brilliant David Stockdale penalty save secure a 2-1 win in front of a 7,000 strong away following at the Putney End. It was of the most memorable away days of recent years.
Team news
Potter said in his pre-match press conference that Adam Lallana and Tariq Lamptey are both in contention to return after missing the Leicester defeat through injury. That is good news for the Albion, who have not lost a game this season in which they have both started.
Following such an abject display on Sunday, Potter must surely be considering more widespread changes. Dan Burn looked about as comfortable as pillow made from stinging nettles at the King Power and it would be pretty shocking for him to keep his place.
Then there is the question of what to do about Maty Ryan. Everyone can see that Brighton’s number one is out of form and could benefit from a spell out of the team, but at the same time is such a massive six pointer really the time to chuck in the unproven Robert Sanchez for his second Premier League appearance?
It would be a huge call from Potter which would heap pressure on Sanchez’s young shoulders. Perhaps Potter should just say “sod it” and ask Casper Ankergren if he will play in exchange for 20 Marlboro Light and a four pack of Carlsberg.
Fulham’s danger men
In the wake of Gaetan Bong’s January departure to Nottingham Forest, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa has established himself as the best Cameroonian player in the Premier League with a string of dominating and powerful midfield performances. Fulham also possess a lot of pace in wide areas through Neeskens Kebano and Ademola Lookman.
It had looked like Brighton might get away without having to face Aleksandar Mitrović, who missed the Cottagers’ 1-1 draw with Liverpool through injury. Parker though confirmed in his preview that the Serbian was back in training and available for Fulham v Brighton
That’s bad news for the Albion. In the 2018-19 campaign, Mitrović bullied Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy to the point that they might well have ended up with post traumatic disorder.
Dunk and Duffy are not exactly slouches when it comes to winning balls in the air and defending against a target man of Mitrović’s ilk. If he could petrify those tow, imagine the damage that he could wreak on an Albion defence that so far this season has shown it cannot mark from set pieces or convincingly defend balls into the box.
The betting value for Fulham v Brighton
Brighton’s two matches with sides below them in the table so far this season have ended in draws. You can back that record to stretch to three out of three at a best priced 49/20. Should Mitrović be involved, sticking a few quid on him to score anytime might soften the blow for when the inevitable happens.
An interesting subplot
We touched on this at the start of the match preview, but it was Fulham away in 2019 which marked the beginning of the end of the Hughton’s time as Brighton manager. Could further misery at Craven Cottage lead Fulham to play a huge part in costing another Albion manager his job?
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Fulham away
Bar Hughton’s side throwing away that 2-0 lead on our last visit, Fulham away has been a brilliant day out in recent years. Most Albion fans would probably go for that 2-1 win in the promotion season in this section of the preview, but we actually enjoyed Nathan Jones leading Brighton to a 2-0 win at Fulham in December 2014 more.
After four months of absolute dirge under Sami Hyypia, Jones needed just 90 minutes to make being an Albion fan fun again. Watching him completely lose his mind in celebration in front of the away end at the final whistle made it doubly special.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Fulham away
The only good thing about the 4-2 defeat was how beautiful Craven Cottage looked in the snow. And even that came with a caveat as it took about a week to warm up afterwards.
Fulham’s most famous fan
You don’t get much more famous than the great Michael Jackson. He was such a big Fulham fan that they used to have a statue of him outside Craven Cottage which was scandalously taken down in 2014.
Fulham got their comeuppance for that as within a few months, they were relegated from the Premier League after 13 years in the top flight.
Former chairman Mohamed Al Fayed spoke for the rest of the football world when he said that the Cottagers would never have gone down had they not removed the King of Pop. Shamone!
Prediction
We confidently predicted a Brighton win in our match preview of the Leicester game which obviously worked out well. A more realistic guess on this occasion of Fulham 1-1 Brighton.
