Albion Analytics: Mitoma shines in win at Molineux

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The best stats from Saturday's victory.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2022-11-07T13:20:00Z

Kaoru Mitoma scored his first goal for Brighton with a fantastic header against Wolves.

Saturday's 3-2 win over Wolves marked Roberto De Zerbi's first away win as Albion head coach and consecutive victories under the Italian.

That result gave the Seagulls consecutive Premier League wins for the first time since August (versus West Ham and Leeds) and ensured Albion go into the final round of pre-World Cup fixtures in sixth place.

The five goals between Brighton and Wolves were part of the 19 scored across the five 3pm Saturday kick-offs in the Premier League, with the 4.75 goals per game average the highest in a single round of matches at this time (minimum of four games playing simultaneously) since 5th February 2011.

Post-match, Roberto De Zerbi described it as a game that Brighton “played in our style”, with the Albion recording season best totals for a single game in terms of possession (71%), pass accuracy (89%) and shots on target (8), while only at Brentford (43) did they complete more progressive passes than against Wolves (40).

That win is the earliest match day that Brighton have won their sixth game of the season and it has cemented the club’s best ever start to a season. Never before after 13 games have Albion been this high in the league (6th place), won this many games (6) or accumulated as many points (21), with underlying numbers positive in terms of xG (24.1) and goals scored (22), both also personal bests.

Regardless of the result against Aston Villa on Sunday, Brighton will end this phase of the Premier League season in the top half of the table and as the highest-placed representative of the south coast.

While the sample size is small (seven games) so conclusions ought to be made with caution, since De Zerbi’s arrival, Brighton have been among the best attacking sides in the league.

Across those fixtures they have the second-highest possession average (58.5%), third-highest pass accuracy (85.3%), most open-play shots on target (37) and only four sides have scored more than their 11 goals. They have now scored three goals or more on three different occasions in De Zerbi’s seven games in charge.

It was their eighth away win this calendar year, with only Manchester City (9), Arsenal and Tottenham (both 10) having more, but important Albion have won more on the road than they have lost (6) in 2022. They have drawn three times in their seventeen games away from the Amex and their 2022 away form (1.59 points per game) is worth 30 points across 19 games (half a Premier League season).

They maintain a positive goal difference on their travels (+1, 26 scored and 25 conceded).

Man-of-the-match Kaoru Mitoma shone on what was just his second Premier League start. The Japan winger was Albion’s top player for dribbles (3), tackles (3), shot-creating actions (7) and successful open-play passes into the penalty area (4). Only Leandro Trossard (10 and 8) recorded more touches in the opposition box and progressive passes received - Mitoma was eight and five in those metrics respectively.

With the exception of his five dribbles against Liverpool and six touches in the opposition box against Tottenham, those statistics were personal bests for Mitoma so far this season.