In their 10th season in the Premier League, the Seagulls have long since moved on from being a side well run enough to keep its distance from the relegation race. Now they might reasonably aspire to another step forward, away from the mass of sides just outside the premium European places and into real contention for Champions League qualification. Indeed, if you are a more exuberant Brighton fan, the question you might be asking yourself is not whether your side has made the leap but whether it has bounded up two tiers over the course of one summer.
After all, they sit third in the Premier League table with the division's best attack and its third-best defense; combine those and you have a plus-16 goal difference. Their nearest rival by that metric, Manchester City, is at plus-11. Beat City in the second of this week's doubleheader with Enzo Maresca's side and they will be two points off the league leaders, though Arsenal might well open up a gap.
Then again, what do Brighton have to fear from the champions? They've already smashed them 3-0 this season. Even their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool did little to quell Brighton's momentum.
Not for the first time in his managerial career, Fabian Hurzeler couldn't resist a snipe at the manager of a big-six opponent in defeat, but he did have a point when he argued that "there was one team who really tried to create and try to win this game." The Seagulls went down swinging at Anfield, drawing seven shot blocks from Andoni Iraola's side. It really was not an exaggeration to say that if Yasin Ayari or Charalampos Kostoulas had scored early on, this might have been another famous win for the boys from the south coast. Does this all sound too good to be true?
Well, then it probably is. Admittedly, Hurzeler's side had looked primed to push on at the end of last season, an impressive run of results in March and April securing an eighth-placed finish and Conference League football. Then, in customary Brighton fashion, their best players left.
Danny Welbeck had been their leading scorer, Jan Paul van Hecke the leader in league minutes and a crucial ball progressor, and while Carlos Baleba had endured a down year in which he had battled injuries, he still looked the most likely to ascend to a Moises Caicedo/Alexis Mac Allister level in Brighton's long line of breakout talent in midfield. Brighton could be trusted to replace the players they sold well. Swapping out Van Hecke for Luka Vuskovic already looks like the greatest of swindles on Tottenham, who are happy enough with what they have, even if they might have let the next great center back slip away.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
