Albion Analytics: Reaching 100 goals in 2023

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The incredible numbers behind our century of goals this calendar year.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-12-17T06:00:00Z

Joao Pedro's strike against Marseille marked our 100th in all competitions in 2023.

Joao Pedro’s match-winner for Albion at home to Marseille was significant for a number of reasons. More than giving them top spot in the group — and sending them straight to the Europa League round of 16 next year — it brought up a century of goals for the Albion in 2023.

They are the fifth Premier League club to reach that milestone, in all competitions, this calendar year: Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United are the others. In fact, in the Premier League era (since 1992-93), Albion are just the fourth instance of a non ‘Big Six’ team hitting a ton of goals in a calendar year; they follow on from Newcastle in 1994 (106), Leeds United in 2001 (102) and Leicester City in 2021 (103).

78 of their goals have been in open-play, which only City can better (97). “He creates 20-25 chances on average a game.” City head coach Pep Guardiola said on Roberto De Zerbi last season. “He’s better by far than all the opponents, he monopolises the ball in a way I haven’t seen for a long, long time.”

This calendar year is Albion's sixth playing exclusively Premier League football (having been promoted in May 2017). For the first four years, they only scored more than 40 Premier League goals once in a full year, in 2018 (41 in 37 games, a 1.1/game). In 2022, they hit 53 in 36 games, comfortably their best return, with almost 1.5/game, but this year those numbers have been blown out of the water: 77 goals in 38 league games, with three games remaining, means the Seagulls are averaging over two goals/game for the first time.

There are two simple reasons for this: Albion have racked up big scores in games, but they have found the net consistently too. De Zerbi’s side have scored in their last 32 consecutive league games, a run stretching back to a 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham in February.

In that run, they have scored three in seven separate games, put four past three different opponents and even hit Wolves for six at the Amex in April, the first time scoring that many in a game since they beat Blackpool 6-1 in 2013.

The omens for Albion having a big year in-front of goal were there from the first game of 2023; they won 4-1 away to Everton, their most goals in a top-flight away game in club history. Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson were all on target that night, and along with Joao Pedro, are the four Brighton players to scored ten-plus goals in all competitions this calendar year. Ferguson accounts for 11 of the 18 Premier League goals scored by Albion teenagers in 2023, the most goals by teenagers for a single club in a calendar year of the competition since Liverpool in 1998.

Mitoma, with ten goals and 11 assists, is the only Albion player with double digit hauls for goals and assists. He is one of just seven players at a current Premier League to manage that feet (along with Bruno Fernandes, James Ward-Prowse, Bukayo Saka, Mohamed Salah, Bryan Mbeumo, Erling Haaland).

The sheer spread of goals is impressive; 17 different players have scored for in all competitions this calendar year, and 24 different players have assisted. With goals this frequent, it is commonplace to see trademark assist-goalscorer combinations, with the same players setting each other up, but Mitoma to Ferguson (4) and Pervis Estupinan to Mitoma (also 4) are the only Brighton pairings to yield more than three goals — the attack is so fluid and well-coached that anyone can assist anyone.

Unsurprisingly, with the combinations varied, the goal types are too. 15 of those have been from outside the box, most memorably Julio Enciso’s Puskas-nominated equaliser against Manchester City, a shot that is scored just 2% of the time.

Though only City (19) and Arsenal (16) have scored more than Albion's 12 sequences of nine-plus passes ending in a goal, while De Zerbi’s side have another three such instances in the Europa League, including Joao Pedro’s landmark winner against Marseille.

That goal was the 24th that Brighton have scored beyond the 75th minute in 2023, and 18 of those have come in the Premier League, a metric where they rank joint-third (with Newcastle).

“We could have 25 goals, so we have to score them (chances),“ said De Zerbi in September, after the Seagulls' first six league games of 2023-24, in which they scored 18 goals, the most of any side.

“We have to put the focus on the attackers,“ he added. Perhaps the only surprise is they did not reach a century of goals faster.