The goalless draw at home to Everton produced what could prove to be a valuable point for Albion, but even a diehard fan would admit that the match seldom hit the heights. But what would the reporters perched high in the temporary press seats in the West Stand Upper find to say?
Riath Al-Samarrai of the Daily Mail had made his feelings about the shortcomings of the entertainment clear during the game via Twitter. You wondered whether he might have adopted a more neutral tone when he came to write his report, but he did not hold back.
“Not much good to anyone, that,” he wrote. “Brighton are still close to one dotted line, Everton made up only a little ground on another, and for once an empty stadium felt like a small mercy.
“It really was dross, not even good enough for a VAR tantrum. There were four shots on target, apparently, but none that warranted the memory space. So it was one of those. One where the content was pretty abject but the context was really quite important and relevant to matters at both ends of the division.
“In the scheme of things for Brighton, it nudged their margin of separation to the bottom three to seven points, which in consideration of their game in hand on Fulham feels reasonably healthy. But it is still a little too close, a little too unpredictable down in that swamp, so Graham Potter might just have a regret or two about a game that his side shaded.
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Brighton were unchanged from the side beaten by Manchester United and had the better chances. Across the opening half, their three most promising moves culminated in shots for Jakub Moder, Neal Maupay and Yves Bissouma and yet none required a save. The rest was a repeated loop of decent passes and predictable conclusions around the box.”
Sam Dean of the Daily Telegraph also chose to emphasise the importance of the result to league positions and spared us too much kick-by-kick action. He wrote: “Brighton, as is so often the case, had the better chances. If their forwards had been more clinical, Graham Potter’s team would have taken a deserved three points which would have lifted them well clear of the bottom three.
“They are so patient and progressive in their build-up play, but their lack of cutting edge has been one of the defining themes of the season. ‘I thought we were the team that was attacking more and better,’ said Potter. There was no arguing with that, which is rather damning of Everton.
“Brighton were the more dangerous side throughout, with Adam Lallana and Yves Bissouma dominating the midfield. They so rarely look or play like a team that is fighting for their lives. It is progressive, advanced football of the sort that many top-half clubs would like to instill within their own teams.
“As ever, it is finding the substance to go with the style that is Brighton’s problem, and their inability to finish chances remains their most pressing issue. Brighton’s best opportunity fell to Neal Maupay, who stabbed the ball wide, and there were further openings for Danny Welbeck and Jakub Moder as Everton struggled to get out of their own half.”
Nick Ames of The Guardian led on the moment when Everton almost stole all three points, writing of the Toffees that “they arrived with a nine-strong injury list that would be augmented before the close and were on the rack for considerable periods, dominated by a Brighton side that deserved to win. A point was no disaster given that context but Carlo Ancelotti must discover some attacking thrust from somewhere if their season is not to fizzle out.
“They almost discovered it as the game entered stoppage time and, when the substitute Alex Iwobi let fly after cutting inside, the ball fleetingly appeared bound for Robert Sánchez’s top-right corner. Fortunately for Brighton it flew millimetres over; it meant Everton could keep only a tepid level of heat on the top four and, on this occasion, Graham Potter’s side avoided a sucker punch.
“’That would have summed up a little bit of where we’ve been this season,’ Potter said of that late scare. He was probably still scarred by a similar event two months previously, when Christian Benteke scored an improbable winner here for Crystal Palace.
“A win would have taken Brighton to the verge of survival, but they are hardly in a headlong dash for the line at this stage and will surely come out intact. Potter, in his usual circumspect locution, described the result as ‘a good point’ but acknowledged some familiar failings. ‘We lacked a little bit in the final third in terms of decisions and execution,’ he said.”
One Sun writer who is an Amex regular had Tweeted that the game had been the worst of the season, but he was watching from the sofa. Instead his colleague Jordan Davies took a more measured tone, writing that “for Brighton, it is another step in the right direction as their lead above 17th-placed Fulham stretches to seven points with a game to spare.
“But against an understrength and below-par Everton outfit, Graham Potter will be thinking his Seagulls could have wrapped up Premier League survival. But such is the story of their season, Brighton’s lack of ruthlessness was evident. Maupay somehow shanked wide from six yards before Lewis Dunk’s header was tipped over well by Olsen. Everton hung on for dear life.”
James Gheerbrandt of The Times admitted that “in truth, Brighton & Hove Albion were superior, but once again struggled to ally their reliably excellent build-up play and firm grip on possession with an incisive edge. They couldn’t find a way past Robin Olsen with any of their 23 shots and Carlo Ancelotti was forced into increasingly uncomfortable contortions simply to get ten fit players on the pitch.
“It wasn’t easy to create clear chances,” Graham Potter, the Brighton manager, said after seeing his team fail to score for the first time in five games. “I thought our tempo was good and we were probably the team that was closer to scoring.”