FIVE games into the 2021/22 season and the Premier League table has a familiar look at the top end with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all tied on 13 points. The sight of Brighton in fourth place, however, just one point off the pace, is somewhat jarring considering how they didn’t avoid relegation by all that much last term.
Brighton’s early season success shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though. Under Graham Potter, the Seagulls have been building for the last 12 months or so. This development wasn’t always clear last season, when Brighton frequently lacked cutting edge in front of goal, but everything now looks to be clicking.
Potter’s Brighton team earned plaudits for their fluid style of play last season. On the basis of a statistical measure called Expected Points which is calculated using Expected Goals (xG) for and against, they could reasonably have expected to finish as high as fifth in the Premier League table.
In countless matches last season, Brighton were unable to translate their possessional and territorial superiority into goals and victories. Their xG numbers became the theme of a running joke, and a stick used by traditionalists to beat those who look beyond the scoreline for further nuance and context.
FULL-TIME Brighton 2-1 Leicester
Goals from Neal Maupay and Danny Welbeck were enough for Brighton to hold on after Jamie Vardy's consolation#BHALEI pic.twitter.com/rqMzz4XDCu
— Premier League (@premierleague) September 19, 2021
One of the most useful things about xG is that it determine what the mean is for most clubs and Brighton, now that they have finally found their shooting boots with seven goals in five games, have risen to that mean this season. In fact, Brighton are now outperforming their xGs, which suggests they might drop off slightly between now and May, but a top half finish should still be achievable.
“It is about the collective, all of us have grown, you win, you lose and you succeed, you fail, you get better,” Potter said after Brighton’s 2-1 win over Leicester City on Sunday. “We’ve always had an open mind, the more we are together the more you understand each other and the more you improve. But we are not sitting here thinking we have cracked the game of football, we have had a good start.”
As much as Potter’s coaching has forged Brighton into a winning team, the club’s development in recent years goes beyond the 46-year-old’s influence. The Seagulls play in a state-of-the-art stadium that provides fans with one of the best match-going experiences in the Premier League. Their training ground and youth academy facilities also rank among the best in English football.
Brighton end the weekend in fourth place with four wins from their first five Premier League games.
Graham Potter is doing an unbelievable job with the club! pic.twitter.com/o7hDSZIOmr
— 90min (@90min_Football) September 19, 2021
Dan Ashworth was lured from The FA to head up Brighton’s technical department in 2019 and has put in place many of the same principles that have allowed England to make the semi finals and final of the last two major tournaments they have played.
It’s fair to say Brighton have a come long way from their days of languishing in the lower leagues where they played home matches in front of just a few thousand fans at a ramshackle stadium that was primarily an athletics venue. From this one of English football’s most progressive and forward-thinking clubs has risen.
This is evident in the way Brighton have scouted, signed and harnessed the likes of Yves Bissouma, Leandro Trossard, Robert Sanchez and Marc Cucurella. Ben White is another found a platform on the south coast, earning himself a place in England’s Euro 2020 squad and a £50m move to Arsenal having shone for the Seagulls.
If Brighton’s approach is to truly succeed, there will be more cases like White. Their model relies on good coaching, solid coaching and the shrewd reinvestment of transfer funds, and it should all culminate in strong performances on the pitch. From this point on, the sight of Brighton among the Premier League elite might not be so unusual.
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