No sporting integrity if Premier League season is finished at neutral venues

Brighton & Hove Albion Chief Executive Paul Barber caused quite a stir over the weekend with his comments that completing the Premier League season at neutral venues would ruin the sporting integrity of the Premier League.

Supporters of other clubs claimed that Barber’s viewpoint was clouded by self-interest. And while it’s true that the Albion would be disadvantaged by playing away from the Amex, we aren’t the only club who could find their future being shaped by the removal of home advantage for the final nine games of the season.

FootyStats have crunched the numbers in the Premier League this season to see how much each club gains when playing on their own territory.

Norwich City have been the most advantaged, with a 27% increase in their home performances and a 58% improvement in front of goal. The Canaries win an average of 1.07 points at Carrow Road and 0.40 on the road.

Manchester United are second – that famous Old Trafford bias shining through – with 1.93 points at home and 1.14 away. Watford, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton round off the top five.

The Albion are the seventh most advantaged club when playing at home. It gives us a 16% advantage, our attack is 10% more effective and our defence records an increase in performance worth 22%. We average 1.29 points-per-game at the Amex compared to 0.73 away from home.

This of course shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. In Brighton’s two-and-a-half seasons in the Premier League so far, the Albion have won 24 games. 17 of those victories have been at home.

Supporters used to point to Brighton’s struggles on the road being as a direct result of Chris Hughton’s negative tactics. This season has kind of dispelled that myth.

Graham Potter has won only two away games as Brighton boss so far – proof that it doesn’t matter how you approach games, picking up victories when you don’t have home advantage in the Premier League is difficult.

In 2017-18, the Albion only lost one game at the Amex to opponents who didn’t finish in the top five, when Leicester City triumphed 2-0 at the end of March.

Last season, we beat Manchester United at home, drew with Arsenal and would have had a point from Liverpool had Mo Salah not conned yet another referee by doing his best Tom Daley impression.

Both Arsenal and United are yet to win at the Amex. You can see the importance of home advantage when you compare the Albion’s results against the Red Devils since the start of the 2017-18 season.

Twice the mighty United have come to the Amex and twice they’ve been not just beaten, but deservedly so. In contrast, we’ve gone to Old Trafford four times and lost on every occasion.

Brighton are still to face the Gunners and United at home in the 2019-20 season. Play those at the Amex and history suggests we might collect some precious points which could go a long way towards securing Premier League survival.

Move them to a neutral venue where there is no home advantage and suddenly, the chances of pulling off a shock result diminish significantly.

You then have to ask yourself how can it be fair that West Ham United, Newcastle United, Plucky Little Bournemouth and Watford all picked up three very important points when they had home advantage against United – an opportunity no longer afforded to Brighton?

Suddenly, the Premier League isn’t being played on a level playing field. Barber is 100% right when he says that the sporting integrity of the competition would come into question.

It’s tantamount to changing the rules midway through. The Premier League is based on clubs having equal home advantage for 19 of their games and being challenged to play away from home comforts in the other 19.

Suddenly say, “Hang on, we’re taking away home advantage with a quarter of the season left,” and you’re turning it into a very different competition.

That’s especially true when you have a home run in like the Albion’s. United and Arsenal are joined in there by Manchester City and Liverpool.

Four games we have little hope in if not played at the Amex – and opponents that most of our other relegation rivals have had the chance to pick something up from at home already.

As we’ve already said, this isn’t just an issue that could impact on the Albion. For Norwich, the removal of home advantage could be even more ruinous. The Canaries have five games at Carrow Road left against Southampton, Everton, the Albion, West Ham and Burnley.

Daniel Farke’s side may be six points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table. But five matches at home against sides in the lower half presents a real opportunity for them to collect a lot of points. Move those games to a neutral venue and suddenly, their survival chances are severely diminished.

Brighton and Norwich could yet find themselves going down with Watford surviving at their expense. Should the Hornets remain in the Premier League by three points, then their brilliant 3-0 victory over Liverpool at Vicarage Road will be credited as the game that kept them up.

You’d need to have become a serious crystal meth addict during lockdown to think that Watford would have recorded the same result at one of the Premier League neutral venues.

The Albion wouldn’t have the same opportunity to shock Jurgen Klopp’s champions elect. Brighton’s ‘home’ game would have been played under completely different conditions, which would make a mockery of the season.

For what it’s worth, the general view at WeAreBrighton.com Towers is that the Albion probably won’t survive if the Premier League season resumes – with or without home advantage.

One win in 14 league games before coronavirus brought the season to a shuddering halt coupled with nine very tough games makes it very difficult to see how Potter and his players avoid the drop.

But if we’re going to go down, then we least deserve to do it under the same conditions in which the season started. 19 home games and 19 away – every opponent played twice at our place and theirs.

You can’t just remove home advantage and dramatically change the concept of the season out of desperation so Liverpool can lift the title and the Premier League can collect its eight figure broadcasting fee.

The same goes for the latest suggestion of removing relegation in exchange for playing at neutral venues. Relegation threatened clubs who sign up to such a move will suddenly reveal themselves to be full of self-interest, only caring about sporting integrity when it unduly impacts on them.

After all, there’s still the battle for Europe to keep in mind. How would Spurs feel if their chances were negatively impacted by Brighton versus United moving from the Amex, giving United a better chance at three points in the race for the Champions League?

Brighton, Norwich, even Manchester United’s bid for the top four could be skewed by playing Premier League games at neutral venues.

Completing the Premier League season with games at neutral venues wouldn’t be right. Sporting integrity should be more important than money.