On par with Real Madrid and behind only Barcelona. Brighton, at last, have found their rightful place in the world.
Fabian Hurzeler’s side, after yet another rout against Crystal Palace, have now racked up more goals across Europe’s top five leagues than anyone bar the Spanish giants. The Seagulls have more than Bayern Munich, too. Who needs Harry Kane when you have Charalampos Kostoulas?
In fact, only three Premier League sides have ever scored more in their opening seven games of a campaign than Brighton’s 23 (27 by Pep Guardiola’s Man City in 2019-20, 24 by Manchester United in 2011-12 and 24 by Arsenal in 2009-10). None of these teams, however, went on to win the title. Can Brighton buck the trend?
It helps, of course, when you get to play sides as incapable at defending as Crystal Palace, who have already conceded 17 goals from their opening seven games with Pierre Sage clinging to his job at Selhurst Park.
When you stick three past Arsenal, three past Chelsea and four past Aston Villa, though, it suggests you’re doing something right.
It also helps when nearly everything you touch turns to goals. For those who bow to the emotionless number crunching of expected goals (xG), Brighton have already scored eight more goals than they should have done based on the quality of chances they have created. In just seven games, that’s more than any side over-performed across the entirety of last season.
Only three Premier League sides have ever scored more in their opening seven games of a campaign than Brighton’s 23
At some point, you imagine, that will prove unsustainable. At some point, Pascal Gross, Maxim De Cuyper, Chema Andres, Jack Hinshelwood and Jaouen Hadjam will stop scoring with every shot on target they muster. Lewis Dunk won’t always score from 30 yards, nor Diego Gomez from 50.
And yet none of that should take away from the fact that, despite overperforming it, Brighton are still behind only Manchester City for the xG they have created. Only Manchester United have taken more shots.
No team has created as many ‘big chances’ – defined by data giants Opta as one a player should be reasonably expected to score. They are still one of the most attacking, creative and potent teams in the Premier League.
So, how has Hurzeler managed it? This is a coach, after all, who was under pressure from a section of Brighton’s fanbase at the start of the year.
Firstly, as we saw in their dismantling of Arsenal before the international break, their press is relentless. It’s been getting better and better each season under Hurzeler but now it’s in a league of its own. The Seagulls have won possession in the final third 51 times, 14 more than any other side and more than twice as many as 12 Premier League clubs including Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
They allow opponents the fewest passes before attempting to win it back, a stat known as PPDA (passes per defensive action) which is often used as a barometer for an intense press.
That sees Brighton force opponents into dangerous mistakes. No team has cajoled the opposition into more errors leading to a shot than the 12 by the Seagulls. Their attacks start closer to goal than any other team too, so when they do win it back they are likely to punish you.
And yet for a team that is so deadly out of possession, they are not – like so many modern sides in the anti-Guardiola era – looking to have less of the ball. Brighton average 60 per cent possession, behind only Arsenal and City, and are content to build up slowly from the back, baiting opposition presses, and then playing quickly through the lines at speed.
Centre back Lewis Dunk thumped in a 30-yard strike in the 5-0 win over Coventry last month
Brighton are relentless in their pressing and then immediately turn possession into a dangerous attack
That is why, despite not being a traditional counter-attacking team – one that soaks up pressure and spring the attack – they still rank in the top three so far for fast breaks, shots from fast breaks and goals from fast breaks this term.
Brighton have such great variety in their play. Only City and Liverpool have scored more goals coming at the end of sequences of 10 or more passes, while the Seagulls also have the most goals from both outside the box and from corners. They kill you on the counter, with passing moves and from set-pieces. And anyone can get you. Brighton’s 11 different goalscorers is the highest tally in the division.
They swarm you without the ball but then, importantly, with it. As they break forward they commit so many runners from deep to overload the box, all rotating their positions to make them even harder to track. Take their third goal against Palace.
Kostoulas breaks into the area but blue shirts flood forward behind him from midfield in the form of Gomez, Yasin Ayari, De Cuyper and Gross (image below). Ayari, the No10, is the furthest back. The ball is squared, Gross dummies it and Ayari sweeps in to slot the ball home. After just 10 minutes, it’s 3-0 and the contest is over.
Even if Kostoulas’s pass had been intercepted, Brighton have players in prime position to pounce to win it back as usual.
And Brighton have Gross, still pulling the strings at the age of 35, showing he remains one of the most influential and creative players in the Premier League. He has the freedom to roam from central midfield, taking up unorthodox positions, with the pinpoint passing accuracy to open up defences. Only two other players in the league have run more miles than the German.
Only Florian Wirtz has created more chances than Gross this season, though not one of Wirtz’s was classified as a ‘big chance’. Six of Gross’s 19 were. He is making things happen, from both open play and set-pieces.
Charalampos Kostoulas (in possession, right-hand side) breaks into the area against Crystal Palace before squaring the ball to Yasin Ayari, who makes it 3-0 inside 10 minutes
Fabian Hurzeler (left) embraces Pascal Gross, who at 35 is still one of the most influential and creative players in the Premier League
None of the players who have created more open-play chances than Gross get anywhere near him from set-pieces, and none of those with more from set-pieces come close to him in open play.
So while Brighton might be riding the wave when it comes to scoring quite this many goals, they are doing everything right to give them the chance to score them.
Opta’s ‘expected points’ table also has them third behind Man City and Arsenal. They are, indeed, right where they belong.
