Albion Analytics: Breaking down the win against United

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Albion Analytics crunches the numbers from Sunday's victory against Manchester United.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2022-08-10T05:00:00Z

Pascal Gross's brace earned him the Man of the Match award at Old Trafford.

Albion made a flying start to the season with their first ever win at Old Trafford in their 15th attempt.

A defeat for new United manager Erik ten Hag means he is just the second of eight managers (including caretakers) since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure to lose their first game in charge. Albion are making fast starts a habit under Graham Potter – this is their third opening day win in four seasons since Potter’s arrival in 2019, having previous beaten Watford (2019/20) and Burnley (2021/22).

Pascal Gross stole the show at Old Trafford with a first-half brace – he has now scored six times against Manchester United as a Brighton player, with three (including Sunday) being match-winners.

Among currently active players, only Edin Dzeko (7) has more Premier League goals against the Red Devils. In total, Gross has netted 19 times (seven match-winning goals) from 147 shots worth 18.9xG and has now scored in six consecutive seasons for the Albion. Among players currently at the club, only Neal Maupay (27) and Lewis Dunk (25) have scored more in all competitions.

The pattern looked identical – a tap-in from the six yard box – but there were subtle differences between Gross’s two strikes. Brighton’s inverted wing-backs had a role in both goals; Leandro Trossard found Danny Welbeck’s run in-behind to assist Gross for the first.

For the second, the Belgian started a flowing counter-attack with a backheel into Moises Caicedo. Three passes later, Solly March’s shot from the right was parried into the path of Gross.

Trossard’s six shot-creating actions were the most of any Brighton player at Old Trafford and only three players managed more across the opening weekend of the Premier League.

Danny Welbeck’s movement for the opening goal was a constant threat for Albion in the first half. Ranked against all Brighton players, Welbeck recorded the most touches in the opposition box (9), total passes received (31) and progressive passes received (8).

He showed his quality without the ball too, recording the most pressures (26) and successful pressures (7) of any player on the pitch, with Brighton squeezing United particularly high in the first half. The Seagulls recorded five shot-ending high turnovers at Old Trafford, the most of any side during game-week one.

But Brighton showed their ability to win both boxes when defending deep in the second half. Only Dean Henderson (seven for Nottingham Forest versus Newcastle) made more saves in a Premier League fixture this weekend than Robert Sanchez (5). FBref’s advanced metrics have it that Sanchez’s saves prevented at least one goal from United.

Collectively, Brighton recorded the joint-highest number of opposition shots blocked (6) and ranked third in this game-week for clearances (30) – only three times in the entirety of last season did Brighton record more clearances.

Emphasising the team effort of Sunday’s win, each of those blocked shots was made by a different player and four different Brighton players (Webster – 7, Veltman – 6, Dunk and Caicedo – 5) recorded five or more clearances.

Next up for Albion is their first home game of the season. They host a Newcastle side who also won their opening match against newly promoted Nottingham Forest. Eddie Howe’s side actually recorded took the most shots (23) and the most shots on target (9) of any Premier League side on matchday one, though Brighton have lost just once (P10, W4, D5, L1) against Newcastle since promotion.