Brighton’s fast start raises questions over Champions League credentials after 3-0 win over Arsenal
Five games into the new Premier League season Brighton sit among the division’s highest performers, having scored 16 goals, possess a goal difference of +11 and beat Arsenal 3-0 ahead of the international break. That sequence of results has followed a summer of major turnover and a spate of injuries that threatened to make this a transitional campaign.
Brighton finished eighth in the Premier League last season and qualified for the Conference League, but the club sold or loaned out 20 players in the close season. High-profile departures included Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for £70m, Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham for £52m and last season’s top scorer Danny Welbeck — who had 13 league goals — to Chelsea for £5m.
Injuries to both starting wingers, Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh, plus forwards Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter, disrupted Fabian Hürzeler’s pre-season plans. Despite that disruption Brighton have risen up the Premier League, booked their place in the group stage of the Conference League and knocked Manchester United out of the League Cup; across eight games in all competitions they have kept five clean sheets.
Pascal Gross has emerged as Brighton’s central figure after rejoining the club from Borussia Dortmund in January for £1.7m; he has scored three and set up three more this season. Gross has created more chances than any other Premier League player this season with 15, covered the second most distance at 59.7km and has made 290 appearances over two spells at the club under four different managers. “You can really trust him and he makes the teammates around him better,” Hürzeler said after the Arsenal win.
Players who stepped into the void include Maxim De Cuyper, who at 25 has three goals and three assists in all competitions while covering for Mitoma on the left, and 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas, who has six goal involvements — twice as many as last season. Ferdi Kadioglu has switched to right-back, Olivier Boscagli has covered at left-back, and Malick Yalcouyé, Yasin Ayari, Hinshelwood and the teenage Luka Vuskovic, a £46m club-record signing from Tottenham, have all contributed; Brighton have nine different scorers in the Premier League this season.
Brighton’s off-the-ball numbers underline the team’s approach: no side averages fewer passes allowed per defensive action than Brighton’s 7.4, and no team has recorded more high turnovers than their 56 this season. Against Arsenal they made nine final-third regains — the most by any Premier League side against Arsenal since Liverpool managed nine in December 2023 — forcing a side that had conceded once all season into hurried passes and mistakes. Bart Verbruggen said: “You could see so clearly his ideas – the way we win the second balls, the way we are in front of our opponents, the way we win our personal duels, how tough it is to play against us when we bring that intensity. That is the DNA of this team and that’s from the gaffer.”
Hürzeler has pointed to the remaining senior figures as important integrators: “It comes back to the players. I have to give them a lot of praise. I call Jason Steele, Pascal Gross and Lewis Dunk ‘social leaders’. They are important because they integrate the new players quite fast.” Statistically, Brighton lead the league in goals scored, big chances created, average possession, clean sheets, expected goals and shots on target per match. When asked after the Arsenal game whether Brighton were involved in the title race, Gross replied “no”.
A challenging sequence of fixtures and squad strain remain: Brighton face Liverpool and Manchester City away this month and unbeaten Brentford at home, and playing in Europe will add fatigue and injuries. Their injury list is likely to be further tested, and Gross is 35, a factor the club must manage as it pursues Champions League qualification potential this season.