Albion Analytics: Setting records against Wolves

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Crunching the numbers behind Saturday's superb win.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-05-02T09:00:00Z

Deniz Undav netted twice against Wolves.

Brighton further strengthened their push for European football next season and set club records with the Amex win over Wolves on Saturday.

They scored four goals in the first half of a Premier League game for the first time, having last done so against Leeds in February 2016 in the Championship, also at the Amex.

Six goals is the most they have ever scored in a single Premier League game but also as a top-flight side, the first time since April 2013 (6-1 vs Blackpool) that they netted that many in one game.

Saturday’s win is an extension of Brighton’s strong Premier League record against Wolves - only against West Ham (6) have they more wins than the West Midlands outfit (4), with just two losses in the ten meetings. From those games, Brighton have taken 16 points, only more against West Ham (24) and Newcastle (18), outscoring Wolves 19-10 and keeping clean sheets in half (5) those matches.

Wolves become the fourth team (after West Ham, Chelsea and Bournemouth) that Brighton have done the double over this season, with the Seagulls winning 13 of their 22 games against teams below them in the table and losing just four of those.

Post-match, head coach Roberto De Zerbi described it as his “best game as a coach”; only at home to Brentford (4.47) and West Ham (3.7) have Brighton created chances worth more expected goals than in the win over Wolves (3.34), with Albion’s 22 shots only bettered in two games under De Zerbi (Brentford at home, Chelsea away).

The Seagulls scored four of their five big chances plus twice from outside the box, netting four goals from six shots on target off just nine first-half attempts, in their best first-half of the season.

It is a win that has added to Brighton’s club-record breaking season in the Premier League — with seven games remaining they have now (52) eclipsed last season’s points total (51), having already amassed more wins (15 in 31 games this campaign, 12 in 38 last season) and broken the scored goals record (now 61, 19 more than last season’s 42). 50 of those have been scored under De Zerbi, in just 25 games (2 goals per game average).

Deniz Undav opened his Premier League account to become Brighton’s 14th Premier League goalscorer this season, with only Arsenal and Tottenham (15) both having more. Only Julio Enciso (5) recorded more shot-creating actions than Undav (4), who was also second to only Danny Welbeck (8) for touches in the opposition box (Undav, 6) — a very good day for Albion’s forwards.

Most importantly, it is a win that takes Brighton one step closer to European ambitions. Opta predict a 6th placed finish (49.2% likelihood) but more importantly give an 86.9% probability that Brighton finish inside the top seven.