Albion Analytics: From 7-0 defeat to seven unbeaten

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Albion have won six and drawn once since the big defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2025-03-19T06:00+00:00

Pervis Estupinan is the first visiting player to score directly from a free-kick at the Etihad since Wayne Rooney for Manchester United in 2013. 📷 by James Boardman.

Albion go into the March international break seven games unbeaten in all competitions.

Head coach Fabian Hurzeler spoke of disappointment that the six-game winning run was not extended, given Brighton’s dominant performance away to Manchester City, although a 2-2 draw means they took a Premier League point at a ground where they had lost on the previous seven visits (by an 18-3 aggregate score). Hurzeler’s praise was that his side "played in our style (and) proved that we can compete” with top teams.

It meant that twice in a week, Brighton broke the run of a cursed fixture for them, as seven days prior they had beaten Fulham 2-1 at the Amex — their first victory over the Cottagers in the competition at the tenth attempt (four draws and five defeats before then).

In both games, Brighton recovered from losing positions, including twice away to City. Four times in the past seven matches, including all of the last three, Hurzeler’s side have conceded first but not lost — at home to Chelsea and away to Newcastle in the FA Cup, plus the two aforementioned league games.

Brighton rank fifth in the Premier League this campaign for points won from losing positions, taking 14 (three wins and five draws from 14 deficits). Their most points taken from behind in a Premier League season is 15 from 2023/24, and while Hurzeler will want for them to take the lead more in matches, such resilience is as important as it is impressive.

It is a phenomenal response to the 7-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in early February, the club’s heaviest Premier League loss but one which increasingly looks like an outlier and a particularly bad day.

By beating Fulham, they became the first team since Grimsby Town in 1931 to lose a top-flight English game by seven-plus goals and then win their next four league matches.

That four-game winning run made Brighton the league’s in-form team going to Manchester (on the longest run of consecutive victories), and was the first time they had taken 12 points from 12 as a Premier League club — last doing so in April 2017 in the Championship (15 points with 5 consecutive wins which sealed promotion).

Albion's last won four games in a row towards the end of the 2016/17 season, when we were promoted to the Premier League. 📷 by Bennett Dean.

Currently, only Liverpool (25) and Everton (9) are on longer unbeaten runs than Brighton (5) in the Premier League. Hurzeler has improved the defence, a weakness in the second-half of last season, and Brighton are hard to beat this term. It is their third run of seven games unbeaten (all competitions) this season, which included Hurzeler’s first seven matches, and a streak of four draws followed by three wins either side of New Year.

Only the top two Liverpool (1) and Arsenal (3), have lost fewer times than Brighton (6), and this seven-game streak is part of a broader successful run.

Brighton have won nine, drawn five and only lost twice in their past 16 matches, which is why they sit seventh, just two points off fourth-place Chelsea, and are one win away from another FA Cup semi-final.

In that run, they have scored 25 and only conceded 15, less than a goal-per-game, impressive considering seven of those came in one game. In fact, since the start of January, Liverpool (25) and Arsenal (22) are the only teams with more Premier League points than Brighton (20).

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A point a piece at the Etihad as Albion draw 2-2 with Pep Guardiola's City side, Pervis Estupinan and Jack Hinshelwood both found the back of the net but it wasn't quite enough for victory.

An Abdukodir Khusanov own goal (from Jack Hinshelwood’s shot on the swivel) and a Pervis Estupinan direct free-kick — the first scored at the Etihad by a visiting Premier League team since Wayne Rooney for Manchester United in 2013 — made it seven straight games where Brighton have scored twice.

It is their longest run of two-plus goals in games since seven between December 2022 and January 2023. They have had eight different goalscorers in that run, with Kaoru Mitoma, Joao Pedro and Yankuba Minteh all on target three times, plus nine different assisters.

If the pessimistic view is that the international break comes at an inconvenient time of good form, then the optimistic perspective is how promising a position Albion’s recent form leaves them in.