Amex Stadium
Wednesday 27th January 2021
A dogfight between the two teams in 17th and 18th place in the Premier League resulted in the inevitable and predictable draw. In this proverbial six pointer it was Albion who dominated play for most of the match, had more possession but missed a hat full of chances and almost threw it away in the final minute. Sound familiar?
It was a match that Brighton should, and could, have won. Once again it was pretty football with fluid passing movement that lacked the killer punch in the final third. Having spent 90 minutes trying to find the back of the Fulham net Albion almost threw the point away in added time when Ruben Loftus-Cheek had his goal bound shot spectacularly cleared off the line by the ever dependable Lewis Dunk. It would have been a snatch and grab result that Fulham hardly deserved.
Fulham made so many poor passes and gifted Albion countless chances but the Seagulls failed to put them away. It has to be said that Areola in the Fulham goal was in outstanding form for the visitors but it was the same old story for Brighton, attractive to watch but with no end product. The home team probably deserved to win but why Graham Potter didn't make further substitutions towards the end of the game was a little baffling.
With the team crying out for some more firepower up front Potter decided to bring on midfielder Davy Propper and take off MacAlister who was actually doing okay. It was a like for like change and hard to see how just that one change could make a significant difference or have any impact up front while the likes of Aaron Connolly, Percy Tau and Adam Lallana remained on the bench. What the team needed was a goal and although Trossard (who had a decent game) and Maupay came close it was clear that more firepower was needed. The boss decided to just make the one change when perhaps bringing on another striker might have proved the solution to winning this game, I guess we'll never know.
In the end Albion were left ruing their spurned chances yet again. Another good performance but this team are now the league's draw specialists with nine draws, no other team has drawn that many matches in the Premier League this season. Pretty football and the lion's share of possession doesn't necessarily win matches, if Albion are to progress and avoid relegation they need to be more ruthless and start turning those draws into wins...and quickly.
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