Brighton have made a start to the Premier League season that few could have predicted. Five games in, they sit third, have scored more goals than any other team (16) and own the league’s best goal difference (+11). Their most striking result came before the international window, when they dismantled the champions, Arsenal, 3-0. The backdrop makes that form more surprising still: Brighton spent the summer losing some of their best players, are dealing with a growing injury list, and their outstanding performer this season has been a 35-year-old signed in January for £1.7m.
This could have been a transitional season. After finishing eighth last season and qualifying for the Conference League, Brighton sold or loaned out 20 players. The headline departures were Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for £70m, Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham for £52m, and Danny Welbeck, their top scorer last season with 13 league goals, to Chelsea for £5m. Injuries then removed both starting wingers, Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh, while forwards Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter also joined the treatment table. The lineup that beat Arsenal was not the one Fabian Hürzeler would have envisioned in pre-season, yet Brighton have climbed the table, booked their place in the Conference League group stage and knocked Manchester United out of the League Cup. They have played eight games in all competitions, keeping five clean sheets.
Into the void has stepped Pascal Gross. He returned to Brighton from Borussia Dortmund in January for just £1.7m, a deal that looked more like nostalgia than season-shaping business. Instead, no Premier League player has been involved in more goals this season than Gross, who has scored three and set up three more. He has created more chances than any other player in the league (15) and, at 35, covered the second most distance (59.7km). With Chema Andrés doing the defensive work behind him, Gross can drop deep to build, float into creative spaces or arrive late in the box. Hürzeler said after the Arsenal win: ‘You can really trust him and he makes the teammates around him better.’ That trust matters as the old guard disappears: Welbeck, Joël Veltman, Solly March and Adam Webster moved on, and James Milner retired. Lewis Dunk, Jason Steele and Gross are the last of a dying breed of Brighton veterans. Hürzeler called Steele, Gross and Dunk ‘social leaders’ and said they are important because they integrate new players quickly. Gross, with 290 appearances over two spells under four different managers, is one of the few figures left who players and his young manager can look to for guidance.
Gross is not the only solution to the squad overhaul. Maxim De Cuyper, originally signed as a left-back, has covered for Mitoma at left wing, scoring three and assisting three in all competitions. The 25-year-old lacks Mitoma’s dribbling ability but offers running power and delivery. Further forward, 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas has six goal involvements, twice as many as he managed last season. Ferdi Kadioglu has switched to right-back, Olivier Boscagli has covered at left-back, and Malick Yalcouyé, Yasin Ayari, Hinshelwood and teenage Luka Vuskovic, a £46m club-record signing from Tottenham, have played important roles. Brighton have nine different scorers in the Premier League this season.
Their work without the ball is just as telling. Despite the summer upheaval, Hürzeler’s demand for intensity has not changed. No side in the league averages fewer passes allowed per defensive action than Brighton’s 7.4, and no team has recorded more high turnovers than their 56. Against Arsenal, Brighton made nine final-third regains, the most by any Premier League side against Arsenal since Liverpool also managed nine in December 2023. Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen said after the game: ‘You could see so clearly his ideas – the way we win the second balls, the way we are in front of our opponents, the way we win our personal duels, how tough it is to play against us when we bring that intensity. That is the DNA of this team and that’s from the gaffer.’ Hürzeler’s side forced a team that had conceded once all season into hurried passes and mistakes.
Talk of a title challenge should remain measured. Asked after the Arsenal game whether Brighton were involved in the title race, Gross replied with a swift ‘no’. Five games are nowhere near enough to consider a first Premier League title, but Champions League qualification may be within reach. Brighton lead the league in goals scored, big chances created, average possession, clean sheets, expected goals and shots on target per match. There are reasons for caution, too. A difficult run of fixtures awaits: Liverpool and Manchester City away this month, plus unbeaten Brentford at home. Playing in Europe will add fatigue and injuries, the injury list will be tested further, and asking a 35-year-old Gross to sustain this output across a full season is a lot. In the summer, Brighton looked like a team entering transition. Instead they are riding high after losing their top scorer, both first-choice wingers to injury and most of their senior leadership group in a single summer. Being third is something else entirely.