Recipe for success made in Germany: Why Brighton & Hove Albion are the team of the moment in the Premier League with Fabian Hürzeler and Pascal Groß
Under Fabian Hürzeler, Brighton & Hove Albion are currently the team of the moment in the Premier League. With a great deal of (former) Bundesliga power, the Seagulls are ploughing through English football and recently even brought Arsenal to their knees thanks to a tactical masterclass.
"There was only one team today that tried to play football," a visibly irritated Fabian Hürzeler said at the start of March at the press conference after his team’s game against Arsenal. In his analysis, the Brighton & Hove Albion coach was by no means wrong. The Seagulls were by far the better and more dominant side for almost the entire match against the Gunners.
They just failed to reward themselves with a goal, which is why the scoreboard showed a 1-0 defeat at the end. Brighton had the better of the Londoners in virtually every relevant statistic. Hürzeler’s side, though, failed to turn their many chances into anything tangible. A moment of individual brilliance from Arsenal star Bukayo Saka, helped by a dreadful mistake from Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, ultimately made the difference and gave the Gunners a narrow win.
After the final whistle, Hürzeler had no interest in sticking to a sober match analysis. He directly criticised the way Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta views football and sets up his London star ensemble. He also pointed out how sharply that contrasted with the image of supposedly superior Premier League leaders.
Brighton and Hürzeler dismantle Arsenal
You could already see back then what kind of football Hürzeler wants his team to play. In the summer of 2024, the 33-year-old took charge of the Seagulls and immediately received a long-term five-year contract from the club's bosses, fully aware that his signature style would need time to take hold on the pitch. Even so, Brighton's steady development under the German has been impossible to miss.
Early in Hürzeler's reign, the back line was still an obvious Achilles heel and technically superior opponents repeatedly punished them. Over time, though, the coach has increasingly managed to find a working balance between attack and defence.
Last weekend, of all teams, Arsenal got a first-hand look at what that can look like when it is executed almost flawlessly. Brighton swept aside the previously unbeaten leaders 3-0 at the Falmer Stadium, with Hürzeler’s team producing a footballing and above all tactical masterclass.
Brighton execute Fabian Hürzeler’s plan perfectly
From the first minute, the Seagulls pressed with maximum aggression and never allowed the Londoners to impose their possession and control-based game at any point. Brighton's front line sometimes closed down Arsenal's defenders as deep as their own penalty area. They blocked simple passing lanes intelligently, swarmed the ball-carrier with numbers and, once the only option left for the Gunners was a long ball forward, won it back quickly through smart positioning.
David Raya alone failed to find a team-mate with three of his seven passes in the opening 15 minutes because Brighton repeatedly put the Spaniard under active pressure and created overloads in the centre, leaving him with little more than a pass out wide to full-backs Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, who were also marked out of the game, or an uncontrolled ball towards the centre circle.
That produced nine regains in the final third, the highest number by an Arsenal opponent since Liverpool in December 2023, also nine. Brighton have in fact already managed 35 regains in the final third in the current competition, eight more than Everton, who are second among all Premier League teams in this statistic.
Hürzeler lavishes the highest praise on his team
"The key was that whenever a player went into a duel, he always had the feeling that one of his team-mates was behind him," said Hürzeler, who praised his team to the skies for the flawless implementation of his tactical concept. "If one player was beaten, the next (team-mate) was there. The question is: can you rely on one another on the pitch? Do you trust one another? Does everyone know their role at set-pieces? Are you always alert and fully switched on in every situation and every moment of the game?"
Following the win against Arsenal, Brighton now have the best attack in the league. After five games, the Seagulls already have 16 goals, and in Premier League history only Manchester City in the 2022/23 season scored more goals, 19, in the first five matchdays.
Just as importantly, the Brighton manager's approach is also having a positive effect on the defence. In their first eight competitive matches, Brighton have already kept a clean sheet for the fifth time. Last season, they needed twice as many attempts to reach the mark of five clean sheets. "The most important thing is not to concede any goals at the back," said Hürzeler.
Arteta also paid tribute to that. "From the very first throw-in," the Spaniard became aware of Brighton’s extreme pressing. "The technical mistakes in our own half; we did not observe any of the principles of the game that you have to follow to get out of these man-against-man situations. We were constantly defending," said Arteta.
Which players are particularly thriving under Hürzeler?
Over the past transfer windows, Hürzeler has gradually built a team tailored exactly to his requirements. With Chema Andres, signed from VfB Stuttgart shortly before the transfer deadline, for example, the German coach has found the perfect type of player to win back long balls played out from the opposition defence as quickly as possible.
The Spaniard brings the necessary physical attributes at just under two metres tall and with his strength in the tackle. He is also quick enough across the ground to provide cover against counters if the pressing trap further forward does not snap shut in time. Former Hamburg player Luka Vuskovic, signed in the summer from Tottenham Hotspur for €55 million, has also turned himself into an undisputed first-choice starter in a very short time.
Another key part of Hürzeler's system is former international Pascal Groß, who joined the south coast club last winter after increasingly finding himself sidelined at BVB. Under his compatriot, the 35-year-old is enjoying something of a second spring with the Seagulls and, after five matchdays, rather surprisingly tops the Premier League scoring charts ahead of top stars Erling Haaland, Florian Wirtz and company (three goals, four assists). Groß also made it 1-0 in the 3-0 win over Arsenal (31st minute) and later set up Chema’s goal for the final score (57th).
"I feel very good, very comfortable. It is a good mix of fitness, experience and the work with Fabian Hürzeler, a coach who uses me in a way that allows my strengths to come to the fore," Groß explained in an interview with kicker when asked about the reasons for his current outstanding form. Right now, the team are carrying out Hürzeler's demands almost perfectly. "We had our pressing and the resulting high regains to thank for some of the goals. Overall, we create a lot of chances," said the midfielder.
Above all, Groß is benefiting from having more freedom in attack and being allowed to interpret his role more offensively. "He is like good wine. The older he gets, the better he gets," praised Hürzeler. Groß does "things that you cannot measure when he is on the pitch, but that we see every day on the training ground. He has the ability to create social cohesion among all our players. We have so many different nationalities and nations and he has a feel for all these dynamics".
Mikel Arteta offers Fabian Hürzeler a hand of reconciliation
With things currently going so smoothly for Brighton, they moved up to third place in the table after their third win, Hürzeler this time resisted the urge to deliver a fiery speech. Unlike in the meeting almost half a year earlier, he had little reason to reproach the opposition. Arsenal had played perfectly into the German's match plan and found hardly any answer over 90 minutes to Brighton's relentless pressing.
Instead, Arteta faced the press after the match and laid the "dispute" between the two coaches to rest once and for all. Unlike in the previous meeting, when he dismissed Hürzeler's comments with sarcastic remarks and made light of them, the Spaniard on Saturday had nothing but appreciation and praise for his fellow coach.
"I am here to say what I think, to stand up for my club and to get the best out of my players. What happened is over. That is in the past. I have huge respect for Fabian and for what he has achieved. What Brighton as a club are producing under him is simply remarkable," enthused Arteta.
