This weekend West Ham travel to Brighton to kick off the weekend early on Friday evening. Buoyed by that great victory against Man Utd we will be hoping to continue our current run of good form and win successive league games for the first time this season. Ahead of the fixture I had a chat with Scott McCarthy from WeAreBrighton to discuss the game and the season so far.
Congratulations on staying in the Premier League last year. How did you rate last year’s season? What were the particular highlights?
The aim of the game last season was survival and in the end we managed that with something to spare. It wasn’t a particularly good campaign to be an Albion fan on the road as we only won twice away and only scored 10 goals – I won’t remind you of where one of those wins and three of those goals came – but at home we were largely brilliant. Beating Arsenal was a highlight as that was our first victory over top 10 opposition but the best day was easily defeating Manchester United to stay in the Premier League. When you were a kid growing up in Sussex and Brighton were fighting relegation to the Conference, 80% of the other kids in your class were United fans and would torment you for supporting such rubbish. So to defeat them to confirm our place in the Premier League for the following season was very sweet indeed.
Agreed, there really is not too much better. You’ve had a mixed start to the season, although like us you have managed to dispatch Man United again, you’ve had a few defeats and a couple of draws. How to you sum up your season so far?
It’s been a frustrating start although the fixture list hasn’t been kind. We’ve played all of last seasons top four in our first seven games which was always going to be a difficult ask, so to have five points is probably about where we should be. The “winnable” games have been a disappointed though. We went to Watford on the opening day and were dire and against Fulham and Southampton, we gifted the opposition two goal leads before coming back. The game at St Mary’s was particularly galling. Chris Hughton went there and set up with 10 men behind the ball to try and defend our way to a draw, which invited wave after wave of pressure. That allowed Southampton to go 2-0 ahead. Hughton belatedly threw on some of our expensively-acquired forwards for the final 30 minutes and the result was we absolutely battered the Saints and scored twice to rescue a draw. Had we have set out to win the game from the start, then it could have been a very different story.
Last season you finished 15th with 40 points: notoriously the second season back in the Premier League is harder (though I must admit haven’t looked at the actual stats) what does Brighton have to do this season to maintain your Premier League status?
We need to be better away. It’s as simple as that. I’ve already mentioned our terrible away record and I don’t feel comfortable relying on us being that good at the Amex again this season. As a result, we need more points on the road. We all saw what Burnley did last season when the combined the brilliant home form of their first Premier League campaign with an improved away record. Now, I think you’d need to sniff some serious glue to suggest we can “do a Burnley”, but it’s a model we need to try and copy in terms of being more proactive on the road.
How do you feel you invested during the summer? Who are the new players that are delighting the fans at the Amex?
All of our signings have been a bit of a gamble to be honest, but that’s always the case with the Albion. Our record buy was Alireza Jahanbakhsh for £16m from AZ Alkmaar and as is always the case when buying from the Netherlands, your never really sure whether your getting a Luis Suarez or a Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Yves Bissouma is a young but raw central midfielder who loves to try and get on the front foot, Martin Montoya at right back has relieved some of the pressure on Bruno who is 37 now and we’ve signed a couple of back up defenders in Leon Balogun and Bernardo as well. Hughton is always notoriously careful when it comes to throwing in too many new signings and Montoya is really the only one who has been a regular so far although Bissouma has played a fair bit recently because of Pascal Gross’ injury. Jose Izquierdo wasn’t starting games until after the October international break last season and I’ll think we’ll have more of an idea of how well we have invested by the end of this month.
Chris Hughton is the archetypal ‘_One game at a time_’ manager, are you happy with his record at Brighton?
His record speaks for itself. We were staring League One at the face when he took over four years ago and now we are in our second season in the Premier League. His ultra-conservatism can be frustrating at times, as can the fact he refuses point blank to make any substitutions before the 70 minute mark most weeks. But he’s a superb manager and a great bloke. If we were to be relegated, I suspect the Albion would stick with him because I don’t think you are going to find a manager more equipped to take you back out of the Championship.
What do you think of the appointment of Manuel Pelligrini as West Ham manager? Is he going to be able to lift us to the next step, which I suppose is regular top 8 to 10?
I actually thought David Moyes was a bit harshly treated after keeping you up last season and did wonder whether Pelligrini would be the right man to have n what will presumably be a battle against relegation, as it is for most of us outside the top six. He didn’t start particularly well but I think when you sign the number of players West Ham have and appoint a new boss as well, it’s always going to take a bit of time to gel. On the basis of the last few weeks, I don’t see why the top 10 is out of reach. There are seven or eight clubs who could all have designs on finishing just behind the European spots and West Ham are definitely one of them. I’d like to think we might have a shot as well.
If you could have any West Ham player(s) in your team, who would it be and why?
The fact that we are pretty much solely reliant for our Premier League goals on a bloke who is now eligible for veterans football who we signed from Rochdale over a decade ago is a bit of a concern. Glenn Murray isn’t going to go on forever and every single striker we’ve signed to try and replace him hasn’t worked out for one reason or another. For that reason, I’d take Marko Arnautovic.
Conversely which of your players do you wish were playing for us?
You can have Jurgen Locadia in exchange. We paid £15m for him from PSV Eindhoven in January but he’s only scored on league goal since then. Recent highlights include him falling over his own leg when put through on goal at Southampton and managing to put the ball into orbit when presented with a chance my grandmother could score at AFC Wimbledon in pre-season.
Can anyone stop Manchester City winning the league this year? Who are your picks for the top 4?
It’s going to be close between City and Liverpool but I think that City will do it again. As for the top four, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs. Arsenal are going to be better under Unai Emery but have quite a gap to bridge and Manchester United have become a circus with all this Jose Mourinho-Paul Pogba nonsense.
Which three teams are your favourites for relegation at this early stage of the season?
Cardiff look dire and Huddersfield are the sort of side who gave everything to survive last season which makes the motivation to do in the second year slightly less. Those two look nailed on. Then there is a clutch of clubs who could fill the third spot. If you’d asked me at the start of the season, I’d have said Burnley because their squad wasn’t up to the demands of Thursday-Sunday football, but getting knocked out of the Europa League before the group stage should save them. Newcastle stayed up last year purely because they have one of the best managers in the division and if Rafa the Gaffer walked, I could see them plummeting like a stone.
How will Brighton line up against West Ham on Friday evening? Team/formation?
Hughton won’t make too many – if any – changes. It will be 4-4-1-1 with the normal suspects playing. The only question marks will be over the fitness of Dale Stephens and Gross. If both of those are fit, they’ll walk back into the starting line up. I’d also like to see Izquierdo given a start. He’s only got one substitutes appearance under his belt so far after coming back from Colombia’s World Cup campaign injured, but for some reason he seemed to absolutely love playing against West Ham last year. Let’s see if he can do it again
Are you confident you can beat us? Prediction for the score?
I don’t think it will be anything like last season! You were terrible on the two occasions we played each other while we put in two of our best performances of the season. I’m going for an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Well thanks again to Scott for his time. I think that we will be chomping at the bit to get out onto the pitch again, I’m going for a 1 – 3 win for us. With Felipe Anderson scoring again. COYI