Lamptey’s return set to make Brighton’s excellent start to the season all the more exciting

Sunday’s 2-1 victory against Leicester City ensured Brighton and Hove Albion’s impressive start to the Premier League season continued as the Seagulls solidified their place in the top half of the early league table.

Even though the win was in part secured by a controversially awarded first-half penalty after Leicester’s Jannik Vestergaard was adjudged to have handled a Shane Duffy header, and by surviving two Foxes’ goals being disallowed after Harvey Barnes was twice deemed to be in the eye-line of Robert Sanchez in an offside position, it did little to diminish the sense of euphoria that engulfed the Amex Stadium at full-time.

Despite having never seen their side register three points against Leicester since returning to the top flight in 2017, it was more than understandable that there was a great deal of excitement among Brighton fans ahead of kick-off.

After two seasons of receiving plenty of plaudits for re-inventing the style of play without securing the wins their football has merited, head coach Graham Potter has seemingly found a balance that allows his team to be effective at both ends of the field.

The previous weekend’s 1-0 win at Brentford had arrived courtesy of a disciplined defensive display that rarely looked likely to be undermined by a lapse of concentration or misplaced pass – an issue that would often hinder the team’s progress last season in particular.

Leandro Trossard’s 90th-minute winning goal was also delivered with a degree of ruthlessness and conviction that Seagulls supporters will hope is a sign that Potter has managed to address their goalscoring issues despite not signing a new striker in the summer transfer window.

The prospect of taking on Brendan Rodgers’ talented collection of players was therefore deemed the perfect test of just how ambitious Potter, his players, and the supporters should look to be this season.

The level of anticipation was ramped up even further when the team sheets were released ahead of kick-off.

On the Brighton bench, 262 days after his last competitive appearance, was Tariq Lamptey.

The 20-year old was expected to miss no more than a couple of months following a hamstring injury he suffered in a goalless draw against Fulham last December. However, complications following an initial return to training meant he was forced to undergo surgery, ending Lamptey’s 2020/21 season after just 11 Premier League appearances.

Given the impact he had on both Brighton as a team and the league in general, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the Chelsea academy graduate played twice that number of games at the very least.

His boundless energy and enthusiasm in terms of both attacking and defending immediately caught the eye throughout his first full season as a Brighton player, and the freedom offered to the wing-backs in Potter’s favoured formation allowed him to enthral supporters further with daring dribbles and aggressive runs into opposition penalty areas.

According to FBref, Lamptey was averaging 3.51 touches in the opposition penalty area per 90 minutes last season and he was making 8.48 progressive carries, a stat that calculates the number of times a player carries the ball either five yards closer to the opposition penalty area or into the box itself.

So far this season, the players that have attempted to replace Lamptey in the team at either right wing-back or right-back, Pascal Gross, Adam Webster and Joel Veltman, have failed to match these statistics and the only area in which one of them comes close is Webster’s 7.94 galloping progressive carries per 90 minutes.

The numbers indicate Lamptey is a genuinely unique option for Potter when fit and available, and his return will surely help to add another interesting sub-plot to a reunion between the head coach and the club he left for the south coast in 2019 on Wednesday evening.

Potter had already revealed before Lamptey’s appearance on the team sheet for the Leicester game that he was likely to be involved in the Carabao Cup third-round tie against Swansea City.

“He (Lamptey) has done more and more team training, played some internal 11 against 11 in the international break, and came through that well.

“He probably has still a little bit more to do. But we are building up towards that time for the Swansea match, but we’ll take it day by day with him. We are just excited and happy that he is where he is now and we are looking forward to seeing him out on the pitch.”

Although the result of the game may ultimately be somewhat irrelevant in what should serve as a firm foundation for Brighton’s marauding right wing-back to re-launch a career that promises so much, progress in the cup competitions could add another layer of positive momentum to what is shaping up to be a successful season.

Now feels as good a time as any to target a run in one of the cups, although based on Potter’s approach in recent seasons, it would still be something of a surprise if he does not make wholesale changes from the victory at the weekend.

In the 2019/20 season, the Seagulls did not collect their fourth Premier League win until the 11th game of the season and last term it took until their 21st. This season it has taken them five matches.

With Brighton now more than a quarter of the way towards the much-cliched top-flight survival tally of 40 points, and nearly halfway towards a total that would have seen them avoid the drop last season, selecting a strong side that would in all likelihood overcome a team that currently sit 21st in the Championship is surely a more viable luxury for Potter to indulge in than it has been in previous campaigns.

Despite bitterness at his decision to depart Swansea City after just a single season, Potter was highly thought of during his time at the South Wales club. This is in no small part thanks to an impressive run to the FA Cup quarter-finals before being controversially knocked out by a Manchester City side that was on its way to back-to-back league titles and, somewhat spookily, ended up beating Chris Hughton’s Brighton in the semi-finals.

The 46-year-old’s commitment to his methods and process does however make it seem unlikely that he will go against his principles and start selecting his strongest 11 for a fixture in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup to get one over a former employer. His side’s start in the league suggests that a fairly hefty degree of trust should be afforded to his judgement.

The return of Lamptey should be another step towards warding off any dissenting voices.

Given Brighton currently find themselves in the Champions League places, sandwiched between four sides that many are expecting to compete for the Premier League title, only something truly special could possibly get Seagulls supporters anymore excited.

Based on what we’ve seen from Tariq Lamptey so far, he might just be that.

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