[Albion] Albion vs the bottom three (every PL season)

[brighton_tom]

This season Fulham have 9 points from their 5 games against Leicester, Southampton, and Ipswich, with Southampton away left to play. So a very similar points tally to us.

& Bournemouth also have 9 points from their 5 games against Leicester, Southampton, and Ipswich, with Leicester at home left to play. So again a very similar points tally to us.

 

[Bozza]

It's not the bottom three, but this table allows you to look at how each club has performed against sides in the bottom half:

Premier League Table vs Bottom Half Opponents

Premier League tables and rankings from 1992 to the current season, including the all-time Premier League table.

www.football365.com

...and you can select just home, just away or both. You can also select by season.

So, this season, we're 11th against bottom-half sides. Against top-half sides, we're an impressive fourth.

What stands out for me, in the table against bottom-half sides, is how ruthlessly efficient the best performers are. Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle and Forest have all accrued far more points against the "lesser" teams than we have.

 

[BBassic]

If fans were confident of games they ‘should’ win, bookies would go out of business.
Every game has fine margins, and sometimes an element of luck, like deflections.

It's not a "we should win this" thing for me. It's a "they've been in terrible form for months, maybe we won't shit the bed?" thing. And if needing two penalties to draw at home to Leicester makes me entitled then I guess I'm entitled

 

[Weststander]

It's not a "we should win this" thing for me. It's a "they've been in terrible form for months, maybe we won't shit the bed?" thing. And if needing two penalties to draw at home to Leicester makes me entitled then I guess I'm entitled

 

[jackalbion]

We beat Burnley 2-1 away in 2021/22

 

[Dorset Seagull]

If you reverse the results it actually looks ok in a 3 points at home and a point away sense and the point each for the Leicester games. Also it’s all very well saying the lost points would put us in the euro mix, however, in that scenario we may have not got the unexpected points we accrued against the top teams. Swings and roundabouts

 

[Mellotron]

What stands out for me, in the table against bottom-half sides, is how ruthlessly efficient the best performers are. Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle and Forest have all accrued far more points against the "lesser" teams than we have.

I think this is it.

People are comparing us to Fulham and Bournemouth above (understandably), but many of us (understandably again) like to think our league rivals should be the likes of Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle.

 

[nickbrighton]

I really think some people concentrate too much on particular games, or sets of games, rather than the whole season. I blame the likes of sky sports, bt , motd etc for constantly inventing new stats to throw our way. How many games on a tuesday night in february have they won, havent won when player x scores first, never won a game against London opposition on a Wednesday , Liverpool doing badly with the Saturday 12:30 kick off,cant win against bottom half teams of easter saturday type of thing.

There are always anomalies for every team- West Hams dire performance against us for 6 or 7 years for example , Player x always scoring against a particular team,

Im pretty sure it is possible to show just about anything if you want to

We have disappointing runs mixed in with outstanding and unexpected runs, this season as well. We've not done very well against the bottom three, but actually as shown in a previous post, we haven't done any worse than other teams around us.

This place is almost unbearable after a poor result, its fine to be disappointed and frustrated when we play poorly , just as its good to be happy and positive after a good one, but this constant doom mongering and naval gazing is way OTT for a team still on course for its second best position in its history, with a second European campaign still very possible, yes we have lost and drawn games we "should" have won, but we have also won games where realistically we should have lost. Overall though this has still been a good season, just with poor and good results coming in long runs. Had the good and bad been spread evenly IMO people would be much less "sack everyone, were doomed" and more "we're doing pretty well, but just a little disappointed about what could have been"

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

It's not just bottom three sides, though, is it? Struggling teams generally, say, bottom six - and it's the home results, where teams defend in numbers. What is most disappointing in those situations is when we finally score but then give goals away ourselves.

If you take both the Leicester and Wolves home games, we got caught out trying to go for more goals rather than defending the leads, as Fab pretty well said on Saturday. But what would the crowd reaction be if we played more defensively at home? Not very positive, I'll wager.

 

[Nicky Rust Fan Club]

My take is that the disappointment comes from the knowledge that the league this year is closer than ever and unfortunately, we have failed to capitalize on this, especially when we have got ourselves into positions to push on towards a European spot, we always seem to find our worst form.

In a season where Man Utd and Spurs have dropped like a stone and others such as Newcastle, Man City, Chelsea and Villa have had bad runs it feels like a missed opportunity to do something really special.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It's not a "we should win this" thing for me. It's a "they've been in terrible form for months, maybe we won't shit the bed?" thing. And if needing two penalties to draw at home to Leicester makes me entitled then I guess I'm entitled

Yes, it's all about expectations.

Brighton have always been on a rollercoaster ride ever since I can remember (60 odd years).