Albion Analytics: Toffees brushed aside

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The numbers behind another terrific win on the road.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-01-05T06:00:00Z

Pascal Gross looks an anxious man as he waits for the ball to cross the line.

Brighton started 2023 much like they began 2022 — a comprehensive away win at Everton.

Having never won at Goodison Park until the fixture last season, it is now two wins in as many trips to Everton for Brighton — they have four Premier League wins against the Toffees, only recording more against West Ham (five) since promotion in 2017.

The game was decided in just 305 seconds of the second-half when Brighton scored three times from three consecutive shots. It was the first time in Premier League history that Albion scored four times in an away game and all were by different scorers. It now makes it seven out of Brighton’s 13 games under Roberto De Zerbi where they have scored multiple times.

Evan Ferguson became Brighton’s youngest full Premier League debutant, aged 18 years and 76 days, as De Zerbi named the youngest Albion starting XI so far this season (25.3 years average age). There have only been four Brighton starting lineups younger in Premier League history.

The Irishman had the most shots of any player on the pitch (four) and was involved at some stage in seven of Albion’s 19 shot-ending sequences, the third-most of a player in crimson after Moises Caicedo and Pascal Gross (eight each) though the pair both finished the game whereas Ferguson only played 71 minutes.

His goal made him the youngest player to score in consecutive Premier League appearances since Federico Macheda in 2009 and when he assisted Solly March three minutes later, the 18-year-old became second-youngest player to score and assist in a Premier League game after Michael Owen — post-match De Zerbi described him as having “big potential” and being “physical and technical”.

It may have been a quickfire treble in the second half but Brighton were in control throughout. Kaoru Mitoma’s 14th minute opener is the ninth time the Seagulls have scored in the opening 15 minutes of a game this season, the most of any Premier League side by three.

In the first 15 minutes of matches this season, Brighton have outshot opponents 35-27 but notably accumulated over double the xG compared to the teams they have faced (7.89 v 3.34) — in fact, this is Albion’s best period of the game for xG and goals scored, when splitting the match into 15 minute chunks.

Brighton outpassed (492 to 463), outshot (19 to 10) and of course outscored Everton (four v one), accumulating more xG than the hosts (2.2 v 1.31) despite a late penalty for Frank Lampard’s side. Albion did more than just play attractive football too, winning ground duels 40 against Everton’s 33 and only losing two of the 15 aerial duels on Merseyside.

The result means the Seagulls have won three consecutive away games for the first-time in top-flight club history, including the games at Southampton and Wolves. Since the start of the 2021-22 Premier League season, Brighton have been victorious in 12 of their 28 matches on the road and lost just seven times, taking the fourth-most away points (42) in the division.