Brighton and The Leeds United meet in the day’s top five clash
Here we are, the fourth game of the Premier League season and there is a top five clash to enjoy: Brighton & Hove Albion v The Leeds United.
Not many pundits or fans would have predicted that at the beginning of the campaign. The Albion faced a tough start of Manchester United, Saudi Sportswashers with a billion petrodollars buying their way up the table and a West Ham United side who a lot felt were best placed to gate crash the European Super League Elite Six party.
Seven points from nine for Brighton is a fantastic return. Even more impressive is that the Brighton defence is yet to be breached by an opposition player.
Alexis Mac Allister and his own goal at Old Trafford is the only time that Robert Sanchez has been beaten so far in 270 minutes of football.
If it is a surprise to see the Albion in such a lofty position after three difficult opening games, then it is even more of a shock for The Leeds United to be flying so high.
The Peacocks might well have been beaten finalists in the 1996 Coca Cola Cup and the biggest club in world football, but they looked like prime relegation candidates in 2022-23.
They survived a return to the Championship by the skin of their teeth last season. Jesse Marsch in charge seemed to offer very little other than American enthusiasm and being able to shout FIGHT AND WIN and other such U-S-A nonsense at the Elland Road crowd, whilst the transfer window so far has seen them lose Kalvin Phillips and Raphina.
Yet here they are. Sitting third in the table and arriving at the Amex having just beaten Chelsea 3-0. That was presumably not something which Marc Cucurella dreamt of when driving past Stamford Bridge heading the wrong way back to Brighton thanks to a malfunctioning sat nav.
Marsch has used the summer to tweak The Leeds United’s style. They now appear to press more sensibly than under FIFA World Coach of the Year contender Marcelo Bielsa, who famously demanded every one of his players to have Mo Farah-esque long distance running ability.
That might have been the Peacocks’ problem last season – they were simply tired after two-and-a-half years of Bielsa. A three month break and new ideas from Marsch looks to have reinvigorated them so far, although it is still early days with 35 games left to play in a long season.
Not that it has prevented Seagulls fans getting excited. The Albion’s form has sparked early talk of *whisper it quietly* a European tour.
Brighton supporters do at least have a slightly longer body of work to point at for fuelling their August optimism, going back to the final throes of the 2021-22 campaign.
Since the start of April and the emergence of Moises Caicedo, Brighton have taken the fourth most points of any club in England’s top flight. Only Manchester City, Liverpool and Spurs have collected more. Not bad company to be in.
If Thursday nights in Albania, Kazakhstan or some other wonderful country are to become a reality however, then Graham Potter has to improve the Seagulls’ home form.
Finishing ninth in 2021-22 despite winning only five matches at the Amex was impressive. Turn just a couple of those draws and defeats suffered in home matches into wins and suddenly Brighton have a points total which challenges the top seven spots.
It is Amex games against opponents like the Peacocks which can prove the difference. A smattering of boos infamously greeted The Leeds United’s last visit to Sussex, as Brighton made it more than two months without an Amex victory and three months without a goal from open play in the Falmer vicinity.
The Albion registered something like 1,345 shots in that 0-0 draw against The Leeds United without scoring. Supporters were not booing the performance; those who booed were expressing frustration at another game without a goal which stemmed from the club failing to sign a striker.
A quick reminder that DJ Jurgen Locadia got 30 minutes off the bench. That is how bad the situation was. The decision to bring on everyone’s favourite Instagram influencer slash Dutch poet in an attempt to find a goal being a landslide winner as Graham Potter’s Strangest Tactical Decision of the Season at our WAB 2021-22 Awards.
Not that the media cared about the reasons. The headlines simply said Brighton booed off despite being in the top 10. Potter did not help matters in fairness, saying he needed “a history lesson” to understand why Albion fans were reacting in such a way.
Over the next few months, Potter oversaw the worse winless streak Brighton have ever gone through in the top flight of 11 matches.
He also suffered six defeats in a row, something no Albion manager had delivered since Mark McGhee was chugging pints of whiskey in the 2005-06 Championship relegation campaign. Not the sort of history lesson Potter was talking about, one would guess.
Those barren runs all seem a long time ago, given recent form. It would seem even further in the past if Brighton can secure three points from The Leeds United to further strengthen their position and continue the excellent run since that win at Arsenal on Grand National Day.
There are reasons to be confident. Danny Welbeck loves a goal against The Leeds United, having scored twice in two appearances against them in a Brighton shirt.
Welbeck’s fate probably goes one of two ways this weekend. He either fires the Albion to victory and the sale of Neal Maupay to Everton for £15 million suddenly seems less risky.
Or Dat Guy gets injured after 20 minutes and Brighton have to negotiate the next three months without a proven Premier League centre forward. Those European dreams may look a lot less likely if the worst were to occur.
Pascal Gross also happens to be in the best form of his Albion career since, well, May. Both goals in the 2-1 win over Manchester United, an outrageous flicked assist at West Ham.
When Gross is playing like this, he wins games by himself and the pAsCaL gRoSs iS a sEt pIeCE mErChANt crowd scuttle off for six months.
So yes, Gross and Welbeck can win at one end. We have already mentioned the form of the Brighton defence at the other.
Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster and Joel Veltman look impervious and Robert Sanchez has pulled off some top drawer saves, along with the odd moment of terror. That is what you get with the young Spaniard.
Now into his fourth season in the job, Potter for the first time has a settled XI. It has remained unchanged in all three Premier League games so far and as long as it keeps delivering results, there seems little reason to bring out the Roulette Wheel again and start fiddling.
The Leeds United will be a tough test of this Brighton side. Pass it and begin to show that Albion can win home games as well as excel on the road, and who knows where this campaign will go?
