Brighton & Hove Albion love London more than tourists

Brighton continue to surprise in the Premier League and that makes Graham Potter definitely one of the best coaches of the 2021-22 season.

The most impressive thing about their 2021-22 is their incredible results in London, where the Seagulls are undefeated. They love London even more than tourists.

How important is that form in the capital city of the United Kingdom? Well, the season began with one defeat in eight games. Brighton fans could not believe their eyes and talk was of Europe.

Marc Cucurella arrived and he has been a great signing. His arrival proves that small and medium teams can get top players if they have a plan. Transfers like that put Brighton on the right track.

In such a difficult division, a downhill point was always going to come. Between September and Christmas, Brighton did not win for almost 100 days and the same thing happened again from February to April.

The issue is how you get out of those downhill periods. Potter and Brighton have found a way and they remain in the fight for a top half finish. A large reason for that is their results in London.

Three wins and three draws against six different teams sounds crazy. It started with a 1-0 win at Brentford, then followed by three consecutive draws.

All finished with the same 1-1 score, against Crystal Palace, West Ham and Chelsea. The common feature of all matches? That Brighton were behind and always equalised after 80 minutes.

Neal Maupay scored the first two in “dead time”. Something similar happened at Stamford Bridge with Danny Welbeck striking to earn the Seagulls a point.

Then we come to one week in North London. Brighton had six defeats and one draw in seven games and would face Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur away from home. Six points were harvested along with a clean sheet.

Brighton have collected 40 points in 32 matches and 12 of them have come in London. If we add the matches against London clubs at the Amex, the number rises to 18 – almost half of the Seagulls’ total points.

The credit for this belongs to Potter, who has built a team that has little to worry about when facing the big opponents.

Just think about where Brighton would be had they not gone through those two droughts during the season – or if they played London clubs every week…

Dimitris Manakos @dimitris_manakos