Neal Maupay’s week of redemption sums up Brighton & Hove Albion’s never-say-die spirit

“Last week, after the Leeds (United) game, I was the worst striker in the world,” said Neal Maupay with a hint of exaggeration following Brighton and Hove Albion’s 1-1 draw against West Ham United last Wednesday. “Now I’m the hero and that’s the life of a striker.”

Maupay’s hyperbole came in the wake of a wonderful acrobatic strike in the final moments of the game against the Champions League-chasing Hammers. It was a perfect moment of justification for why his head coach continues to show so much belief in him despite glaring misses, disciplinary issues and difficult spells of form that stretch back further than the run of games without a victory the Seagulls are currently on.

He continued to prove his worth with a 98th-minute equaliser against Southampton on Saturday. Whilst it was not quite as spectacular as his goal in East London three days earlier, it still involved an intelligent appreciation of James Ward-Prowse’s decision to drop back onto his own goal-line when defending a Jakub Moder free-kick to find space for an instinctive touch and finish that left Alex McCarthy with no chance of saving.

Suddenly, Brighton are back on track, despite being unable to end a winless run that stretches back to September, and Maupay will feel more vindicated than most given the criticism that came his way in the aftermath of the Seagulls’ draw with Leeds United just eight days ago.

A good performance, set-piece defending aside, earned a draw against a West Ham outfit that have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea at the London Stadium in recent weeks, and with captain Lewis Dunk joining fellow centre-back Adam Webster on the injury list for the trip to St.Mary’s, a patched-up back-line survived a difficult first half to provide Maupay with the platform to score his second late equaliser of the week.

However, it has not been just the last few weeks that doubts have been raised about the former Brentford man’s ability to lead the line for Graham Potter’s side.

Last season, the regularity with which he would pass up big chances was a reason that Brighton were nervously looking over their shoulder at the Premier League relegation zone for longer than their performances suggest they should have been, and after he received a red card for dissent after the final whistle in a 2-1 defeat at Wolves in May, the forward missed the final three games of the campaign through suspension.

The last 18 months of the Frenchman’s Brighton career have been frustrating to say the least.

A largely successful first season at the Amex saw him score 10 times, but even though he managed just two fewer the following year, the 2020/21 season was typified by a wastefulness in front of goal that seemed to be the biggest factor preventing Potter’s stylistic revolution on the South Coast materialising into something capable of challenging further up the league table.

In his final season at Brentford, Maupay scored 25 Championship goals on the back of finding the net 12 times during his first campaign with the Bees. The progression he made under the tutelage of first Dean Smith and then Thomas Frank suggested he was ready for the step-up to the Premier League, encouraging Brighton to spend a reported £20 million on him in Potter’s first transfer window at the helm.

His 10 goals in that first season in blue and white stripes were scored against an xG (expected goals) total of 11.6, a slight underperformance but nothing overly concerning. Eight goals last season came from an xG total of 13.0, suggesting the chances he missed across the season should have amounted to five more goals had his finishing only been at an average level expected of a top-flight striker.

This understandably left many Brighton fans feeling a new forward was a priority in the summer transfer window, but with rumoured moves for Benfica’s Darwin Núñez and Celtic’s Odsonne Édouard seemingly never coming close to being completed, the hierarchy at the Amex were willing for Maupay to be the main man in attack as the season got underway.

He made the most of the faith shown in him early on, notching the equalising goal in the 2-1 comeback win at Burnley on the opening day of the season and then scoring another three goals in the five games that followed as Brighton ended September in the Champions League qualification places.

The last strike of his fine start to the campaign came with practically the last kick of the game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Although it was deemed a good point on the evening after a below-par showing from the Seagulls, it turned out to be the start of an 11-game spell without a win that is yet to be broken.

It is fine margins going against Potter’s side rather than for them, as had been the case in the opening weeks of the season,that has been the main reason for the victories drying up, but Maupay’s form undeniably tailed off following his fast start.

After missing presentable chances to turn goalless draws against both Arsenal and Norwich City into narrow wins, the Frenchman was withdrawn after 58 minutes of the game against Manchester City at the end of October with City three goals to the good and overrunning Brighton in midfield.

That change saw Leandro Trossard utilised as a false nine against Liverpool the following weekend, and an impressive Seagulls’ performance was capped by the Belgian slotting home a well-constructed team move to earn a creditable 2-2 draw against Jurgen Klopp’s title challengers.

Maupay spent the full 90 minutes on the bench and was only introduced as a relatively late substitute in the two games that followed.

With goals remaining hard to come by in his absence, he returned to the starting 11 for the visit of Leeds, although with how the evening played out, he might have wished he had remained on the sidelines.

A first half display that saw him miss two golden chances to open the scoring, the first considerably shinier than the second, was followed by an ineffective second half showing that was brought to an abrupt halt when he was replaced in the 68th minute by the Seagulls’ forgotten man Jurgen Locadia.

As Shane Duffy can attest to, Potter is hardly the type of head coach to entirely discard a player under his command, but the fact Locadia was deemed a better option to try and find a winning goal having not played a Premier League minute since August 2019 and not scored a Premier League goal since December 2018, was something of a damning indictment of how Maupay’s evening had played out.

Just as the spattering of boos that caught the attention of Potter at full-time of the game against Marcelo Bielsa’s side were overblown, Albion supporters were not going quite as far as suggesting he was the worst striker on the planet in the days that followed. However, his failure to find the net across October and November only intensified calls for a new striker to arrive in the January transfer window.

Two late goals that earn two late points can see even the most maligned of centre-forwards transform from zero to hero though.

Despite not being the most clinical in front of goal, he is often providing for the team. Against West Ham, Maupay set up Moder for a chance to equalise with a slide-rule pass that no one in the ground saw coming and his willingness to either come short to link play with Brighton’s array of attacking midfielders or stretch defences with his movement makes him a valuable member of the team during his most barren spells.

Even if he should be judged on more than simply goals alone, the Frenchman has scored six times in the first 14 games of this season, even over-performing his xG of 4.8 as he appears destined to have his most fruitful season yet for the Seagulls.

Despite being Brighton’s undoubted hero this week, Maupay should still be seen as part of a cohesive collective rather than a stand-out individual, and this is a collective that has learnt the value of fighting to the final whistle.

In 2020/21, goals in the last 10 minutes plus injury-time of games earned the Seagulls just four points across the season as a whole. So far this season, they have already picked up six points in the closing stages of matches and they still have 24 fixtures to go.

“If it happens more than once (coming from behind to score a late equaliser), it can’t be luck. There’s a great spirit with the players. We weren’t at our best at all, it was a really scrappy game.

“We pushed and pushed, and it was fantastic for Neal Maupay to get the goal.

“Stuff has happened with injuries and the guys have had to adjust and reset. The character of the team is fantastic.”

– Brighton & Hove Albion Head Coach Graham Potter

Their run without a win now stands at 11 games after the draw at Southampton, but with Maupay back on the score-sheet and two late points secured on the road in a matter of days, the feeling around the club is significantly different from the murmurs of discontent that greeted the final whistle against Leeds.

If Brighton keep performing as they are, and Maupay continues to contribute as he has this week, a victory surely cannot be far away.

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