Albion Analytics: The mid-season report card

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An in-depth look at our first 19 games of the Premier League season.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-01-23T09:00:00Z

Kaoru Mitoma scored Albion's opening goal at Leicester City on Saturday.

Albion reached the midway point of their season on Saturday with a 2-2 draw at Leicester City.

Regardless of the result in the midlands, Albion were guaranteed to have their best first half of the season in terms of points, and took the tally to 31 — four more than their previous best (27, 2021-22).

Replicate this form exactly and Brighton will break the club record points total (51) from last campaign by 11 points, with 62 points good enough for at least seventh place in the five full seasons that Brighton have been in the Premier League.

And those added points are reflected in the table, with Brighton at their highest position (6th) after 19 games and with more wins (nine) than ever before.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side are just five goals away (37) from matching their goal total from the entirety of last season (42), with only Tottenham (39 in 20 games), Arsenal (42 in 18 games) and Manchester City (50 in 19 games) having scored more than the Albion in the Premier League this season.

Top scorer Leandro Trossard (seven) moved to Arsenal this week but, compared to other sides, Albion were not reliant on the Belgian for goals — he had scored 21% of Brighton’s Premier League goals this season, with Leicester, Manchester United, Newcastle, Fulham, Leeds, Tottenham, Brentford and Manchester City all with top scorers netting a higher proportion of their goals.

Underlying metrics are pointing in good directions too, with this the first season where Brighton have had a positive goal difference (+10, the fourth-best in the league as of Saturday evening) but also generated a comparatively higher amount of xG (33.91) than their opponents (24.81 — giving an xG difference of +9.1).

Notably Brighton’s defence has given up chances of similar quality to the first 19 games of the last two seasons, in terms of xG conceded, but it is the sharp rise in chances created as well as goals scored has taken them higher up the table.

13 of the Albion’s 19 games have been under Roberto De Zerbi, winning five and drawing three, outscoring opponents 26-22 and with over 60% possession on average.

In terms of stand-out players under the Italian, it has been all about the wingers in the 4-2-3-1 — Solly March (left-footed) on the right and Kaoru Mitoma (right-footed) on the left. The pair have four goals apiece, with four assists for March, and have been involved in 11 and eight goal-ending sequences respectively.

The young breakout star of Brighton’s first half of the season is academy graduate Evan Ferguson.

His late header at Leicester, to earn Brighton a point, was his third goal of the season from just eight shots in five appearances, having accumulated less than 200 minutes.

It was the seventh goal De Zerbi’s side have scored in the final 15 minutes of games this season, with only Manchester United (9) and Tottenham (8) scoring more but Brighton are joint with Arsenal for only conceding once in the late stages of games.