Breaking Down Brighton’s Impressive Season
Image: Brighton FC Twitter
BRIGHTON, England - Brighton have done it! They will be playing in the Europa League next season!
At the beginning of the season, there were plenty of doubts as to how Brighton would respond after losing Graham Potter, Marc Cucurella and Neal Maupay over the summer. Brighton quelled those doubts as they achieved massive results, including their 3-0 victories over Liverpool and Arsenal and their 1-1 draw with Manchester City to clinch Europa League soccer next season.
One of the reasons why Brighton was able to qualify for the Europa League is because they never gave up, and never went into games believing they would lose. In their 4-2 loss against Arsenal, for example, Brighton kept pushing and was able to score two goals and would have had a third if it hadn’t been disallowed by the video assistant referee (VAR). In their 1-1 draw with Manchester City, they had more total shots and shots on target than the Premier League champions.
Another big part of Brighton’s impressive season was the performance of their young stars - Brighton is tied for the youngest average age (24.7 years old) in the Premier League. Among their young stars are Moisés Caicedo, Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso. This season has been a coming-of-age story for many of their stars. Before the season started, Caicedo had a market value of 6.42 million dollars (6.00 million euros). Now, at the end of the season, he has a value of 58.86 million dollars (55.00 million euros). Evan Ferguson also experienced an increase in value, going from 1.07 million dollars (1 million euros) in September to 10.7 million dollars (10 million euros) at the end of the season in May. His value will continue to be on the rise if he keeps up his remarkable performances.
While its fighting spirit and young talent definitely played a part, there are several reasons behind Brighton qualifying for the Europa League. It should make for an exciting next season, as fans will be eager to see how Brighton performs in the Europa League next season, and if they are able to climb even higher in the Premier League table.
