Albion Analytics: Saints thumped, Solly shines

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The numbers behind our super 3-1 win over Southampton.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2022-12-27T08:00:00Z

Solly March scored his first goal of the season and his first in 58 appearances.

Brighton beat Southampton at St Mary’s on Boxing Day to ensure they enter the New Year in the top half of the Premier League.

A 2020 Forbes article gave Brighton the third-best Boxing Day record of any Premier League side but this had not been the case in recent years. Last year - a 2-0 home win against Brentford - was Brighton’s first Boxing Day win in over ten years, having lost seven times and drawn three, but now they have won on the day after Christmas for consecutive years.

It was the Albion’s seventh domestic victory of the season and they have reached that inside the first 15 match weeks, the earliest in any Premier League season so far. Their current form (1.6 points per game) is worth over 60 points across a full (38 game) Premier League season and would have produced a sixth-placed finish last season.

This continues the peculiar record that, since Brighton’s 2017/18 debut Premier League campaign, the home side is yet to win any fixture between them and Southampton after 11 meetings - the most of any Premier League fixture in history.

Solly March was the player of the match on Monday - he ended a personal run of 58 games without a Premier League goal and scored with his 28th shot of the season, having been the most frequent shooter without a goal this season heading into Boxing Day (27).

The winger had his best game of the season for open-play chances created (three) and successful passes into the penalty area (five). His ten possession losses were March’s fewest in a game in the 2022-23 season.

And it was the 11th time this calendar year that the Seagulls scored at least three goals in a game in all competitions - at full-time on the south coast, Brighton were the seventh top-scorers in the Premier League (26) and averaging their best goals-per-game rate so far as a Premier League team (1.73). “It’s a problem to play without quality, not without a striker,” said De Zerbi at full-time.

The Italian described it as Brighton’s “best game” under his tutelage so far. Brighton had two-thirds of possession against Southampton and only in the home defeat to Tottenham (35) did the Seagulls have more possessions of nine plus passes than at St Mary’s (30). Four of Brighton’s seven shots were on target (57.1%), a second-best shot accuracy under De Zerbi after his first match in charge — 100% (6/6) versus Liverpool in October.

It was fitting that Albion won their final away game of the calendar year - the Seagulls have been victorious in half (nine out of 18) of their 2022 Premier League away games and outscored opponents 29 to 26, one of just seven teams in the league to have a positive goal difference on the road.