Brighton beat Brentford 2-0 at the Amex on Sunday and went second. That is their sixth win in seven Premier League games, it lifted them above a Manchester City side beaten 3-1 at Nottingham Forest the evening before, and it leaves them five points behind Arsenal with the international break to think about it.
Pascal Gross was asked afterwards whether this is a title race. "No, we are not in a title race," the 35-year-old told Sky Sports. "But we have started the season really well. It's the beginning of the season. You see the Premier League, the margins and you look at the results — we are not getting carried away yet." Every game, he added, involves a lot of suffering.
The numbers are not a fluke
The awkward thing for anyone who wants to dismiss this is that the underlying figures back the league table up. Brighton have won seven of their opening ten, with Arsenal and Manchester City among the beaten. They have scored 26 goals, more than anyone else, and created 37 big chances, second only to one side in the division.
At the other end they have kept seven clean sheets, which is the joint highest, and conceded five goals, which only Arsenal have bettered. A team that outscores everyone and concedes almost nothing is not usually a team riding its luck for ten games.
Gross is a large part of why. He rejoined from Borussia Dortmund in January, two years after leaving, and has spent seven and a half years at the Amex across the two spells. He has created eight big chances this season, more than any other player in the league. Against Brentford he scored and set up at least five chances, the 27th time since the start of 2017-18 that he has made five or more in a single match. Only Kevin De Bruyne, on 48, and Bruno Fernandes, on 47, have done it more often. "I just keep going," he said this week. "I think I'm fit, I try to prepare as good as I can and try to help the team win games."
What the people watching actually think
Leon Osman, speaking to BBC Sport, put Champions League qualification as the floor rather than the ceiling. "They look like a team that has really kicked on over the last 18 months. The football they're playing is outstanding and they are a great team to watch." On the title itself he was more cautious. "I think it would be unexpected if they did, but I expected them to win something this year, whether that is a domestic trophy like the FA Cup or the Conference League."
There is also a squad about to get stronger. Yankuba Minteh made his first league appearance of the season against Brentford after a summer in which Liverpool had a bid for him turned down. Kaoru Mitoma, out since May with a hamstring problem, is expected to follow.
The gap at the top may be about to move on its own
Arsenal have won nine of ten and still have not quite looked like the side that won the league last season. Their one defeat came at Brighton in September, by three goals. Manchester City have now lost three league games in a row and visit Arsenal on 29 November, and their season carries a complication nobody else's does: the independent commission that found them guilty of breaching 114 Premier League financial rules earlier this year, a verdict the club are appealing and have always denied. A failed appeal could mean a points deduction, or in the most severe outcome expulsion.
Were that to happen, the current table makes Brighton the obvious challenger by default. Liverpool in fourth and Chelsea in fifth are the only sides to have beaten them in the league this season, and both look some distance from a title push. Ten years on from Leicester, nobody in the game is going to say the impossible is impossible. Osman's framing is the useful one: Brighton spent years selling their best players at a profit, and this is the first season in a while where the plan appears to be keeping them.
Context: Brighton are second after ten games, five points behind leaders Arsenal, with 26 goals scored, five conceded and seven clean sheets. They beat Arsenal 3-0 in September and have also beaten Manchester City this season. Manchester City visit Arsenal on 29 November.
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