Match Review: Brighton 0-2 Cardiff City
If there was any sort of positive to come out of Saturday’s 5-0 defeat to Bournemouth, it was that it was one you’d be able to say “I was there” about for years to come.
Remember that time we lost by five goals at home, a biggest home defeat in 46 years? Yeah, I was there. Funny, wasn’t it?
Losing 2-0 at home to Cardiff City wasn’t funny. Nobody will want to remember they were there. It’s a result that should consign us to relegation and do you know what the worst thing about it is – the players don’t even care.
Bernardo and Florin Andone were straight down the tunnel, completely nonplussed after this latest shambles of a performance. The only thing that some of them seem to give a toss about at the minute is getting hammered at Shane Duffy’s new party flat in Brighton Marina and going out on the pull.
Not even a change back to 4-4-1-1 could get a performance out of them. The showing against Cardiff was very reminiscent of how Manchester United played in the final days of Jose Mourinho’s time in charge. You know, when the players downed tools, didn’t want to play for the manager and so actively tried to get him sacked.
As a result, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Chris Hughton has lost the dressing room. With each passing minute of Tuesday night, that meeting in which the players are supposed to have asked Hughton to be more positive in approach and in which he said no looks more likely to have taken place. They don’t appear to trust in the manager anymore and when that happens, you’re in trouble.
Sadly, we live in an era where millionaire footballers can not play to the standards expected of them and know it will be enough to get a manager the sack with no repercussions for them. They’ll simply move on to another club willing to pay them £45,000 a week while we are left spending a Tuesday night in January trying to work out whether there is a pub in Luton or Blackburn that isn’t a complete hole.
Because make no mistake about it, the players to a man have been terrible. Dale Stephens seems to have lost all of his ability over the past three months. It doesn’t look like Alireza Jahanbakhsh ever had any in the first place. He must surely ranks as one of the worst signings that any club has ever made in the Premier League. £16,000,000 is about £15,999,999 too much.
Maty Ryan hasn’t saved a shot for weeks but he isn’t getting much help from his defence. Davy Propper, God knows what is going on there. Solly March and Glenn Murray had a couple of chances with Murray being unlucky to hit the post in stoppage time, but did anybody seriously expect us to score?
When somebody says, “Stop moaning, it’s not as bad as under Hyypia/Adams/McGhee/Hinshelwood”, they’re missing the point. The players we had under Hyypia/Adams/McGhee/Hinshelwood were shit. This squad isn’t – they’ve just given up. That is what makes it worse.
Compare that to what we saw from Cardiff. They were a side who wanted it more, who relished the battle and who ultimately outclassed us. Can you imagine Neil Warnock settling for the half-arsed effort that the players in blue and white stripes put in? The passion at the end from City players and manager as they celebrated what could turn out to be a massive three points was light years away from anything we saw from our players.
The calls for Hughton to go have intensified and if Tony Bloom isn’t seriously considering alternatives, then he bloody well should be. Has Hughton and his style taken us as far as it can as a Premier League club? Unfortunately, it looks that way.
That leaves us in a very strange situation. If Hughton achieves his aim for the season and we somehow survive, then he might be rewarded for that with a parting of ways. If he fails and we’re relegated, he could easily end up keeping his job. After all, there probably isn’t a manager out there with a better track record in the second tier.
Because that is where we are headed. Cardiff are now just two points behind, full of confidence and with very winnable games against Crystal Palace and Fulham left to come. The Albion have games against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur, in-form Newcastle United, Arsenal and Manchester City to come. Nul points, as they say in Eurovision language.
A look at our record over the course of the season shows you why we’re in this predicament. We’ve taken one point off already-relegated Fulham this season. None from Cardiff. One from Southampton. None from Burnley. You cannot seriously say that a team with that sort of record deserves to stay in the Premier League.
Back in February, the popular phrase of choice was that we were sleepwalking to relegation. As somebody very wisely put it on Twitter, the sleepwalk has been replaced by a sprint quicker than anything Usain Bolt ever managed to produce.
Five games to save a season that is going up in flames quicker than Notre Dame. Based on the last two, we’re done. The players are done. Hughton is done. See you in Stoke next season.
