- Brighton suffered a shock 4-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Luton in midweek
- Seagulls have started slowly in the league in 2024 and have yet to score
- SAMI MOKBEL reveals which three January transfers he rates as the best ever It all kicks off the Transfer Week podcast
Brighton have turned selling their best and brightest stars, and it never seems to bother them, into an art form.
Whether it was Marc Cucurella to Chelsea, or Yves Bissouma to Tottenham, or Ben White to Arsenal, this was a runaway train that refused to be derailed. But now, amid a run of three wins in 16 Premier League games – their opponents today Crystal Palace have won four in 16 – you have to wonder if that policy is catching up with them.
They sold Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister in the summer and amid that lack of control in midfield, it seems opponents are figuring out how to beat Roberto De Zerbi’s approach.
Brighton started this season with a 4-1 win over Luton at the Amex Stadium. That was the Seagulls at their slickest, radiating confidence with one-touch and two-touch passages of mesmerizing play, as Luton won possession just once in the final third.
But when they met at Kenilworth Road in midweek, Luton increased that statistic to 12 as Brighton were slow, predictable and played to their opponents’ high press.
Brighton suffered a shock 4-0 Premier League defeat to Luton at Kenilworth Road in midweek
The Seagulls have yet to find the net in a Premier League match since returning this year
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It took one errant touch of the ball inside 20 seconds for Luton to score their first goal. That was one of 173 times Brighton lost possession – the most in a Premier League match this season – as De Zerbi’s players daydreamed.
Pervis Estupinan’s obsession with cutting in from the left focused on Luton’s second goal as it only took one diagonal ball from Sambi Lokonga into the space Estupinan had cleared for Chiedozie Ogbene to score. Luton then got their third goal after Estupinan carelessly gave away possession. He was hooked at half-time, but the damage had already been done as Luton were already well on their way to a 4-0 win.
Brighton are yet to score in 2024 and I’m sure Palace will look to frustrate them in a similar manner to Luton. They will press high and early, but if they cannot win the ball in that initial chase, Roy Hodgson will tell his players to stand back and form a protective barrier around their penalty area.
Brighton will have to take a lot more care of the ball because if they hand the ball to Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, they risk finding themselves staring at another demoralizing defeat.
Crystal Palace have been revived by the return of their star players from injury, including Eberechi Eze (right)
Due to injuries, Eze and Olise have only started four Premier League games together this season, but they are players who are achieving good goals. I had the chance to watch them train at Palace last year and spoke to Eze for half an hour afterwards. I got the feeling that he was gathering as much knowledge as possible. He was very curious and wanted to know what our mentality was like at Arsenal.
I told him there was no time to waste. You have to make your mark. You want everyone at your club to talk about you in a positive way if you ever leave. Since then I have watched him with great interest and Eze has taken his game to another level, as has Olise.
It used to be all about Wilfried Zaha at Palace. Now it’s Eze and Olise who guarantee the electricity, and if Brighton isn’t careful, they could find themselves on the receiving end of another earthquake.