Potter's Seagulls remain deceptive

Brighton and Hove Albion are coached by Graham Potter. They are a club ran in the modern-day mould and play an attractive brand of football implemented well by their coach, the former boss at Swansea and Ostersund. They're a smart, evolving club not unlike quite a few others...yet they persist in being quirky. 

Why, oh why, do they insist on defying the legitimacy of the xG statistic?

Last season it was almost comical how often Brighton would dominate a game, create several chances but fall short of finishing off their opponent. Week in, week out the question would end up being posed "are Brighton good, or bad?"

There was no answer.

Well, there was. 

Brighton are good but they don't get what they deserve - nearly every single week.

But, then, if they can't make the most of their advantage throughout a game, surely that is a bad team coached well?

Do you see what I mean? Annoying. 

©Getty /

Now, this season is different. They have out-scored their xG by 1.07 goals and let in 1.73 goals fewer than their xGA would suggest. For comparison's sake, over the course of last season, they underperformed their xG by an almost astronomical 13.82 and let in 6.09 goals more than they should have done.

They have 'reverted to the mean' so much that they have now just continued to break the system in the opposite direction, and continued their existence, under Potter, as a statistical anomaly.

Potter is rightly lauded as one of the best up and coming managers in Europe, let alone England. His ability to coach and improve players means a system becomes irrelevant. Whether it be 4-3-3, a diamond, three-at-the-back or anything else, as long as the style of play remains the same, Brighton will always prove to be a threat. It also helps when you have the coaching ability to mould players into several different positions. A key principle of the Bielsa-Guardiola "juego de posicion" philosophy.

The Seagulls sit fourth in the Premier League table and are now showing how much better a team they are than their points total and 16th placed finish last year suggested... whether or not they are quite as good as their results now show appears to be unlikely. 

They were 'due some luck', though...

© Gareth Fuller - PA Images / Colaborador