Seagulls will prove a true test for Toon
QUITE a mouthful Brighton and Hove Albion but will they be a handful for Eddie Howe's resurgent Newcastle United?
You bet they will. Ask Man U, the fading stars of yesteryear who are anything but united and were spanked on their own patch by a superior side who pass the ball nicely and create exquisite patterns.
How on earth can Albion sell stars like Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella to London big guns Spurs and Chelsea pocketing £88.3m in the process and still look so attractive and be so successful?
That on top of earlier in the year letting Dan Burn go to Newcastle and also losing their star finder Dan Ashworth to the same club.
They just keep on giving and keep on going their merry way.
No matter, United must somehow find a way to build on a comprehensive victory over Nottingham Forest because they are hopefully on an upward trajectory and have to prove it.
Our United will certainly worry Brighton more than Manchester's version. The Magpies have a togetherness the self-centred Reds most certainly do not.
Often football's headline pinchers are either in defence or attack, depending on the goals defiantly kept out or scored, but most games are actually won and lost in the engine room of midfield. That is where the flow of the tide is decided.
I thought Newcastle were relentless in the middle third against Forest where Bruno, Joelinton and Joe Willock became a trio of dictators and likewise Brighton's middle of the park overpowered Man U - especially in the first half when a decisive two-goal advantage was attained.
Moises Caicedo was a midfield monster helping his defence and assisting his side in possession.
He could easily become the next star off the Brighton taxi rank in
exchange for another whopping fee, potentially estimated at £60m-plus.
Certainly which team is superior around the halfway line will be in the box seat at the Amex.
However, the bullets still have to be fired and that is where we come to Callum Wilson.
Tony Cascarino was a decent centre-forward with Aston Villa, Chelsea and Marseille who won 88 Republic of Ireland caps so he has a pedigree and he reckons Wilson in the best English centre-forward after
Harry Kane. That is quite a compliment when you consider it puts Callum ahead of the likes of Tammy Abraham, Jamie Vardy, Danny Ings, Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney, Marcus Rashford and Patrick Bamford but I get where Cascarino is coming from.
If Wilson can stay fit – a big if – he is indeed up there jostling with the elite.
United's No.9 got off the mark with a delicious flick of his right boot on the opening day so more power to his performance at Brighton and beyond. I expect Howe to start with the same 11 which swept aside Forest, Joe Willock having done well in a midfield which must now deal with the long-term absence of Jonjo Shelvey while Fabian Schar and Dan Burn locked up the centre of defence and Nick Pope easily kept a clean sheet against overrun opposition.
The Seagulls have triumphantly entered their sixth successive topflight campaign – and the tenth in their history – having finished a best-ever ninth last term.
But then nothing should surprise us under a clever and inventive coach like Graham Potter.
Man U represented the fourth season out of four in which Potter's Albion have won their first away match.
Old Trafford joined Vicarage Road, St James Park, and Turf Moor on their battlefields of success. In other words they go on winning as well as go on selling their prize players.
While young men of unlimited potential consistently take a ride out of town at the other end of the career scale golden oldies Danny Welbeck and Adam Lallana have overcome persistent injury setbacks to display the talent which brought them a bundle of England caps – 42 for Welbeck, 34 for Lallana.
This may be the last of the summer wine for them but as Welbeck in particular showed at his one-time workplace Old Trafford he still has a shrewd eye and a seductive touch.
Brighton displayed with the build up to their second goal on Sunday how attractive they can be. They worked the ball from their own corner flag through four passes in 18 seconds of elegance for Pascal Gross to notch the winner inside the opposition 18-yard box.
Still, let us not get carried away
by the opposition even if they deserve huge credit as a small club punching way above their supposed level.
FFP withstanding, Newcastle are in a less financial straitjacket and therefore have a greater ability to hold on to their top stars and buy more, they have an excellent coach of their own, they press high with a relentless work rate and they have been transformed this calendar year from a timid defensive shell to front-foot aggressors.
It has been a fascinating journey which has just started.
Let us not get carried away by the opposition even if they deserve huge credit
John Gibson