Brighton the only thing standing in the way of an Arsenal Premier League title cruise
It’s an increasingly relevant question: what, precisely, is there to stop Brighton doing something entirely extraordinary this season?
That any answer to that question begins and ends with the word ‘Arsenal’ – and even then only tentatively – is testament to just how good they are. They even had the foresight to land in the Conference this season so even the Thursday-Sunday schedule won’t hurt them given how easily they should be able to steer a path into latter stages of that one. And to be honest, it would now be both major shock and stunning disappointment if they don’t follow your West Hams, your Chelseas and the Crystal Palaces of this world in winning it.
The key to the whole thing lies not in Brighton’s strengths – which are many and obvious and captivating – but in the near total lack of weaknesses.
That’s what’s so rare for this kind of upstart effort. There’s usually something with a team attempting to massively upset the odds like this that gives you pause. Do they have enough goal threat? And, if they do, is it over-reliant on one particular soon-to-be-spirited-away superstar? Are they quite good enough at the back? What about the keeper, is he slightly dodgepot? And even if a team trying to turn ‘Doing a Leicester’ into ‘Doing a Brighton’ has answers to all of that, you’d usually at least have some reservation or other about the midfield.
Yet look for the flaw here, look for the thing that will cause second-place Brighton to ‘revert to the mean’ and fall away and there’s just… nothing. This really does look like it is actually the mean. There is nothing to revert to. There should be no falling away.
It doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but there’s absolutely nothing about their current standing that feels streaky or unsustainable or unjustified.
This is an extremely warm take, so get ready for it, but they’re second in the league because, based on what we’ve seen so far, they are simply the second best team in the country.
It’s huge credit to everyone involved. Brighton are reaping rewards for consistency in a season where there is so little of it. Not for no reason are the top two in the table two of only (absurdly) three clubs currently in their third straight Premier League season with the same manager.
Even with how well everything has gone for Brighton this season, though, and especially at home, they could surely never have expected an afternoon of such comfort against a fellow member of the Bermuda Triangle B teams, who are still enjoying their own fine start to the season despite this setback.
For all Brighton’s excellence here, this was a victory that owed a large amount to two key decisions. ‘Michael Oliver, it’s all about you,’ was the Brentford fans’ verdict at half-time. And it’s easy to have some sympathy.
Neither the red card handed to Igor Thiago nor the penalty awarded when Keane Lewis-Potter had his hands on Luka Vuskovic’s shirt were wrong, but both were absolutely no more clear-cut than Seen Them Given territory.
The description of Thiago’s frustrated and foolish flailing arm that struck Chema Andres on the neck as a ‘forearm smash’ on commentary was way over the top. He took a risk and paid a heavy price, but Chema had a huge chunk of his shirt and was trying to square up to him. He was deservedly booked, and hooked at half-time due to his rattled state offering obvious scope for a levelling up of the numbers.
Not wrong but not unquestionably right either. The penalty falls firmly into the category of ‘Okay, fine, but if that’s a penalty then we’ll get 10 penalties a game’. Which, for the record, we could absolutely get behind. Bring on the chaos.
What Brighton did with what might mischievously be dubbed big-club decisions, though, is what good teams do: take full advantage.
Pascal Gross’s dispatching of the penalty into the top corner was, like Brighton themselves, just ridiculously and unnecessarily good. And even when it was 11 v 11 Brighton had already gone deservedly ahead thanks to the latest slice of absurd highlights-reel behaviour from top-tier modern-day Barclaysman Diego Gomez.
That Brentford suffered no further damage after the break says a great deal about their own qualities this season. We all know how disciplined and organised and committed they are, and they showed all those qualities to avoid folding as so many others would have done in the face of what a side as good as Brighton threw at their 10 men over the final 70-odd minutes of this game.
Today was all about Brighton, though. As if going deservedly second in the Premier League wasn’t enough, they also got to see Palace slip to the bottom of the table.
These are astonishing and unprecedented times on the south coast.
