Albion Analytics: 250 (+1) Premier League games

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The numbers behind our landmark number of Premier League matches.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2024-02-09T09:58:00Z

Pascal Gross now has 50 assists in all competitions for Albion since joining the club in 2017.

Albion became the 38th team to hit the 250 Premier League game milestone when they played Luton Town earlier in January.

For context, Brighton (251) have now played more Premier League games than Bournemouth, Sheffield United, Ipswich, Reading and Hull.

With 15 more league matches this season, they will go level with Derby County, Portsmouth, Swansea City and Reading. The overall stats: 75 wins, 79 draws, 95 losses. 309 goals scored, 349 conceded.

Only nine current Premier League teams have been in the top-flight for more consecutive seasons than Albion’s seven. Excluding the ‘Big Six’: Crystal Palace (11), West Ham (12) and Everton (70).

Since Albion’s promotion as Championship runners-up in 2016-17, there have been six full seasons, and the Seagulls have survived numerous other sides.

Joao Pedro scored a wonderful goal in our 4-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Of the teams promoted up until 2021-22 (excluding last season’s promoted trio, as this Premier League season is ongoing), nine of the 17 sides promoted at the same time or after Albion have gone down (including Norwich, twice). In fact, when Brighton, Huddersfield and Newcastle all survived in 2017-18, it was only the third time (after 2001-02 and 2011-12) that all three promoted sides had avoided the drop.

There are four perfect indicators of Brighton’s evolution since 2017-18, best indicated by comparison across Europe’s top-five leagues (Premier League, plus Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga). In possession, Brighton were the 86th ranked team out of 98 in 2017-18, but shot up to ninth last season and are fifth after 23 games this season. Average age? From 84th in the debut Premier League season to 40th this campaign. Goals scored (per game) has seen them jump over 60 places from 85th to 24th. Most importantly, points per game have gone from 74th to 35th.

The difference is stark when you compare Brighton’s first and most recent 50 games (not quite the entirety of Roberto De Zerbi’s reign); 23 wins in the last 50, ten more than the first half-century (13), over twice as many goals scored (99 vs 47), eight fewer defeats (14 vs 22), marginally more goals conceded (77 vs 72), 34% more points (82 vs 54) and a ridiculous rise in possession average of over 20% (from 42% up to over 62%).

Fittingly, club captain Lewis Dunk has made the most appearances (227, all starts) of any Brighton player in the Premier League, appearing in over 90% of games. Albion’s top-flight record with and without him tells a story. They have won just four of the 24 games without Dunk, a win rate of 16.7% and points per game average of one, compared to 31.3% and 1.2 points-per-game when he plays.

With 29 and 43 assists, as per Transfermarkt, Pascal Gross (213 Premier League appearances) is outright Brighton’s top-scorer and assister in Premier League history — he has been directly involved in over 23% of Brighton’s goals in the competition. If you were to pick four at random, the odds are Gross would have scored or assisted one.

Brighton’s most common winning scoreline is 1-0 (19 times), though only three of their last 24 Premier League wins have been by such a scoreline. Collectively, they have had more 3-0, 3-2 and 4-1 wins (20 times — 8x, 6x and 6x for those specific scorelines).

Their best opponents? West Ham and Manchester United, registering six wins against both teams since the start of 2017-18 in the Premier League.

That record against United is part of an impressive return for Albion against the ‘Big Six’: 78 Premier League games played, 20 wins and 13 draws. They took 20 points from those opponents last season, with six wins. Only Brentford in 2022-23 (21 points) have taken more from ‘Big Six’ opponents in a single season since 2018-19.

Take a least six more points from this season and Brighton (306) will overtake Swansea (312) to enter the top 30 teams for all-time points in the Premier League. If the journey so far is anything to go by, Albion are just getting started.