Albion Analytics: Wolves review

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A 4-1 victory put Albion top of the Premier League table.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-08-23T06:00:00Z

Roberto De Zerbi's team went top of the Premier League table for the first time in the history of the club after defeating Wolves.

Albion made it back-to-back 4-1 wins with victory at Molineux on Saturday.

That result put Albion top of the league - the first time in club's history - becoming the 53rd different club to sit top of the tree in English top-flight history.

It also continued Brighton’s excellent recent form against Wolves and Roberto De Zerbi’s perfect record continued against the hosts in his three meetings in charge.

Albion scored 13 goals scored and conceded just three in those matches, having the majority share of possession each time.

In fact, Wolves are now Brighton’s second-favourite (behind West Ham, who they play next weekend) Premier League opponents in terms of most wins (5) and points (19), winning all of the last four meetings between the sides and losing just twice in 11 Premier League meetings: Played 11, 5 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses, 23 goals scored, 11 conceded, 5 clean sheets.

Brighton have won their opening away league game in each of the last five seasons, a feat that only Chelsea (5 consecutive seasons between 2001-02 and 2005-06) and Manchester City (7 seasons between 2014-15 and 2020-21) have previously managed in the Premier League. Scoring eight in the first-two matches is also their most in a season since the turn of the Millennium, scoring twice in their first eight games also in 1999-00 in the fourth tier.

The Albion have now scored in 29 of their last 30 league games and in each of the last 18 matches in that time, 15 of which were away. In the Amex era (since 2011), it is the longest such away scoring run in club history, also the longest in the Premier League right now and over double anyone else (Tottenham are second with 7 consecutive away games).

Glance across the attacking metrics and Brighton top some of the most significant ones: Albion have scored the most goals (8), taken the most shots and shots on target (43 and 20) and had the most touches in the opposition box (92).

Impressively, they recorded and scored the most big chances (11 and 9) while boasting the best big chance conversion rate in the league (72.7%). Six different players have already scored a Premier League goal for Brighton this season: Pervis Estupinan, Kaoru Mitoma, Solly March (3), Joao Pedro, Evan Ferguson and Simon Adingra. Afterwards, De Zerbi referenced his “incredible squad” with the “right mix” of age profiles in the squad and two players to cover each position.

De Zerbi considered Julio Enciso the “best player on the pitch”. The teenager, on only his eighth Premier League start and first of the season, played just 66 minutes but was one of the standout forwards in the stats. Ranked among his teammates, he attempted (8) and completed (6) the most dribbles, had the joint-most progressive carries (5), won the most fouls (3), attempted the second-most shots (4, behind March’s 5) and ranked second for shot-creating actions too (5), twice assisting March to score.

It was a repeat of the April home game (Brighton 6-0 Wolves) as a double assist haul for the Paraguayan, who setup Gross twice that afternoon.