Now please give Brighton more respect
BRIGHTON and Hove Albion are a top-half team.
Not a sentence you thought you would read almost a third of the way through the season, but Chris Hughton’s brilliant side are in the Premier League’s top 10 — and believe it is where they belong.
Four games without defeat, two away wins in a row, some disciplined defending and a renewed confidence in attack have the Seagulls flying.
‘We’re there because we have the quality to be there,’ winger Anthony Knockaert told Sportsmail. ‘If we keep going maybe the other teams will give us more respect. Maybe they didn’t give us that in the first few games.’
Hughton has bred a side who have absolute faith in their ability to mix it at the highest level. This win marked their first back-toback top-flight away victories since 1981.
Player-of-the-month nominee Glenn Murray’s 29thminute winner was fortuitous, coming off his thigh from Knockaert’s cross, but welldeserved in a display that combined quality with an ability to scrap.
‘We adapt our game quite easily,’ captain Bruno said of the secret to Brighton’s success. ‘ If we have to defend, we’re happy defending, long balls, whatever. We work two days a week thinking about the opponent.’
Knockaert added: ‘Teams maybe think it will be an easy game but everyone can see now we’re a difficult team to beat.’
Hughton, typically modest, is calling for realism.
‘ We’re delighted to be where we are, but as quickly as things have gone well, they can soon go the other way,’ he said.
For Swansea, the mood is miserable. Paul Clement’s side fell into the relegation zone in a game played amid unrest among their fans. As well as protests against chairman Huw Jenkins, players Sam Clucas and Tom Carroll were booed.
But centre back Federico Fernandez urged the fans to blame every player, not just a select few. ‘It’s not about one, two, three, four players. It’s about everyone,’ he said. ‘You can do a bad game but it’s about the whole team.’