Brighton are B-club best placed for A-list status

Pascal Gross has proved an inspired re-signing for Brighton

Impressive start to season despite summer upheaval leaves qualification for the Champions League in reach

20 Oct 2026 - The Guardian

Jonathan Wilson

For two or three years it has been standard to nod approvingly at how well-run Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are and to move on. What else is there to say? It’s true – these are sides who have made the most of relatively limited resources. But there is also an underlying assumption in the designation: that these are clubs who have no higher aspiration, that their limit is earning praise for upper mid-table finishes.

This season, perhaps, offers an opportunity to change that. Other than Arsenal, every major club is undergoing significant transition. Manchester City have started the season with seven straight wins, but there is every chance the punishment for their multiple breaches of Premier League regulations takes them out of the race for the top five. In that context, why shouldn’t one of those efficient smaller sides qualify for the Champions League?

Brentford began the weekend in third and a possible slight sense of frustration that they had drawn four games. They will feel they might have done rather better on Saturday; they were leading Liverpool 1-0 when Yehor Yarmolyuk foolishly flicked his head towards Jérémy Jacquet and was sent off just before half-time. The result was a 2-1 defeat and a sense of an opportunity missed.

Bournemouth have not had the easiest start under Marco Rose, but Sunday’s 2-0 win over Sunderland perhaps hints at a brighter future.

Which left Brighton to carry the charge of the B-clubs, which they did in emphatic style with a crushing 5-0 win over Crystal Palace. The second goal, a perfectly weighted drive from just inside the Palace half from Diego Gómez, spoke of a side playing with immense confidence. Eleven players have scored for Brighton in the league this season and they have become the image of a side without stars, the whole far greater than the individuals who comprise it.

The difference from February, when Brighton last played Palace, is stark. They lost 1-0, meaning they had won one of their previous 12 Premier League games at the time. Generalised grumbling had begun to curdle into calls for Fabian Hürzeler to be sacked. When they lost Carlos Baleba, Jan Paul van Hecke, Danny Welbeck and James Milner over the summer, there were reasons to wonder whether they could keep going with the process of continuous renewal.

There were the usual assorted signings, the usual mix of Premier League experience and exotic unknowns. The 19-year-old centreback Luka Vuskovic, who spent last season on loan at Hamburg from Tottenham, already looks at home (and who really thought, when Spurs and Brighton effectively swapped centre-backs, with Van Hecke moving to London, that Brighton would not end up with the better of the deal?). The 21-year-old Spanish midfielder Chema Andrés, who arrived from Stuttgart, sparkled from the bench against Arsenal and has excelled in the two league games since.

But the standout performer has been a far more familiar name: Pascal Gross, who returned in January after a season and a half at Borussia Dortmund. No player in the Premier League has registered more than his four assists. Nobody has run further. He has three goals. He averages a leaguehigh 3.0 key passes per game. To bring back a player who is now 35 has been a masterstroke.

Arsenal were suffocated by the press and, while a couple of low-xG long-range finishes in the first half helped, Brighton dominated the match to a remarkable extent.

The question is whether they can keep it going. Just as their transfer policy is now an accepted feature of the Premier League, so, too, is a mid-season slump. They have not won a game in December since 2023. Is this squad strong enough to sustain the challenge? Europe seems not to be unsettling them as it did on their first foray or as it appears to be draining Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland, which may be a reflection on the relative quality of the Conference League.

They are doing this without Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh and Mats Wieffer, all of whom should be back at some point over the next month. That suggests the depth of the squad.

It is always a major step for a club unfamiliar with the Champions League to haul themselves into the top five. At times it often feels a mental barrier as much as anything. But if any of those B-clubs are ever going to break into the elite, they may never have a better opportunity than Brighton this season.