The consequences to Brighton if coronavirus cancels the Premier League

Don’t know whether you’ve heard, but coronavirus might well have put paid to the 2019-20 Premier League season – and if that’s the case, how will it impact on Brighton?

Most strikingly, if the season is cancelled and the current league tables allowed to stand, it would leave Brighton clear of relegation.

Anyone with half a brain can see what a legal minefield this is however – not just for those clubs in the Premier League, but those battling for promotion from the Championship.

Just look at the reaction to Karen Brady, who suggested at the weekend that the season should be null and void. Sorry Liverpool, no league title for you.

More importantly for Brady, West Ham United avoid the drop which helps to paper over the complete mess that David Gold, David Sullivan and herself have made of running the Hammers over the past few years. Not hard to see why she wants 2019-20 forgotten, is it?

Paul Barber went on Football Focus and suggested no relegation from the top flight with West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United promoted into a 22 division Premier League.

But what about the likes of Nottingham Forest, Preston North End, Fulham and Bristol City who are enjoying outstanding seasons themselves in the Championship? How can their success be dismissed to maintain the status quo of the current 20 Premier Division clubs?

Rather than deal with the ifs, buts and maybes, we’ve taken a look at what will happen to Brighton and the Albion’s record books if the 2019-20 Premier League season is now done thanks to coronavirus.

Who will be the club’s top scorers? Where will the season rank compared to previous campaigns? And which Brighton players could miss out on significant milestones by being denied 10 nine more games this season?

Lewis Dunk might not make his 300th appearance as a Brighton player
It seems extremely unlikely that Lewis Dunk will remain a Brighton player beyond the end of this Premier League season, whenever that may be thanks to coronavirus.

The Albion captain was linked heavily with a move to Leicester City last summer to replace the Manchester United-bound Harry Maguire.

That never materialised, largely because some shrewd recruitment meant that Brendan Rodgers already had a replacement in his Foxes’ squad in young Turkish defender Caglar Soyuncu, who has proven to be a revelation in 2019-20.

Dunk is again sure to have a long line of suitors ahead of next season. He’s arguably had his best Premier League campaign to date before coronavirus got involved.

Given that Dunk will turn 29 in November, this is arguably his last opportunity to secure a big-money move from Brighton – after all, not many of the country’s top clubs will fork out £40m plus for a 30-year-old centre back with one international cap to his name.

Dunk’s rumoured admirers at various points since Leicester cooled their interest have apparently included Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea.

As a lifelong Blues fan, there seems little chance that the Albion could keep him should a serious offer from Stamford Bridge be forthcoming.

The potential postponement of Euro 2020 by a year may also come into the thinking Dunk makes regarding his future. You could boost his odds of 20/1 to be on the plane this summer using a Bethard bonus code 2020 and that large price reflects the fact that Gareth Southgate has only called him up to two Three Lions squads so far.

Should the tournament take place in the summer of 2021 however, then Dunk’s chances of selection may increase if he spends a year putting in eye catching performances for one of the biggest clubs in the country rather than struggling Brighton.

All of which means that Dunk may fall just short of a triple century of games for the Albion. Just over 20 players have played over 300 times in the 119 year history of the club, which would put Dunk into exalted company.

He currently sits on 297 appearances in an Albion shirt. Should the Premier League season not resume due to coronavirus and Dunk makes his deserved move to a bigger and better stage than Brighton, then he’ll fail to make that milestone in the cruellest of fashions.

Own goals will end the season as Brighton’s second top goalscorer
Anybody who has watched Brighton this season will know that the club’s one major problem has been a lack of goals. Even people who haven’t watched the Albion could tell you that much through a simple browse of the season’s statistics.

For all the questions raised by the amount of relatively simple chances he has missed, Neal Maupay leads the way with eight. That’s a good return for a young striker stepping up to the top flight from the Championship for the first time.

Less impressive is who will be the second top scorer for Brighton this season if the Premier League doesn’t play another game due to coronavirus.

That would go to own goals on four, scored very kindly by Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure and Adrian Mariappa, Everton’s Lucas Digne and West Ham United’s Angelo Ogbonna.

Without those own goals, we’d have lost to both West Ham and Watford and taken only a point from Everton. Knock off those four points and we’d currently be in the relegation zone. So yeah, cheers own goals.

Third top scorer behind Maupay and own goals would go jointly to Leandro Trossard and Adam Webster with three. Having own goals and a centre back as our second and third scorers of the season it not really what we imagined when Chris Hughton was replaced for being too defensive a manager.

Brighton will have equalled their worst winless streak in the Premier League
Speaking of Hughton, the former Albion boss lost his job for a run of two wins in the final 18 games of the 2018-19 season.

If the current Premier League campaign is indeed over because of coronavirus, Brighton will have rounded off their first year under Graham Potter with the exact same form of two wins in 18.

Calling off the season now would probably be good news for Potter. The Albion had been scheduled to take on Arsenal, Leicester City, Manchester United, Norwich City, Liverpool and Manchester City before the competition was suspended.

It’s hard to see where a victory was coming from in that nasty little run of fixtures, giving Potter a worse winless streak than anything Hughton served up.

The Albion will avoid relegation
Don’t worry people, it’s not all bad news. As we’ve already noted, if the Premier League season is cancelled now because of coronavirus, then Brighton would avoid relegation based on current league position.

Even if you decide the table on points-per-game-average to take into account the fact that Aston Villa have played a game less than everyone else towards the bottom, we’d still stay up ahead of Norwich, Plucky Little Bournemouth, Villa, Watford and West Ham.

A 15th spot finish – the place that the Albion currently occupy – would equal that achieved by Hughton in the 2017-18 season.

Based on the fact that we currently average a point a game, if the season was played over the full 38 fixtures then we’d have finished on 38 points – two less than Hughton’s charges achieved in our first Premier League season. Ultimately, that would represent an improvement on 2018-19’s 36.

If you like what you’ve read on WeAreBrighton.com this season, please could you take a moment to nominate us for the Football Content Awards 2020? Simply fill in the box below and press “Nominate me”. Thanks for your support.