Title chatter around Brighton has reached a point where Maxim De Cuyper cannot avoid it on his phone. His response is to tell the dressing room to ignore it.
The Belgian left-back went into the international break with Brighton second in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Arsenal, after Sunday’s 2-0 home win over Brentford. Diego Gómez struck inside 15 minutes and Pascal Groß added a penalty on 42, with Brentford playing most of the game a man short after Igor Thiago’s 20th-minute red card for violent conduct.
De Cuyper told the club website that Brighton’s players are not pretending the fuss isn’t happening.
“I think it’s impossible to not see those kinds of things if you have social media yourself.”
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What matters, he said, is what the squad does with it.
“The only thing we say to each other is that everyone has to stay humble and do his job 100%.”
Seven wins in ten, and a five-point gap
Brighton have won seven of their opening ten league games, a return that has lifted them above Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool and made them the closest challengers to Mikel Arteta’s defending champions. Earlier in the campaign they beat Arsenal 3-0 in September and Manchester City 1-0 in October, results that turned curiosity into genuine title speculation around the Amex.
De Cuyper is treating the position as something to protect rather than celebrate. Winning, he said, makes the daily work easier, but the method stays the same whether results come or not.
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Head coach Fabian Hürzeler struck a similar note. He is happy for supporters to enjoy the ride, but will not be dragged into predictions himself.
“They should be always excited if they watch our game, and that’s our job to make them excited,” Hürzeler told reporters, before adding that fans “can dream” and “have high expectations”, while stressing those expectations are not something the staff can control.
Verbruggen: ‘We are on game nine’
The humble line is not new inside the squad. Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was asked earlier in the autumn about Brighton’s title chances. His answer to Sky Sports was blunt: “We are on game nine, so not really. We are just focusing every day on what’s ahead of us and the job we have.”
That is now the party line from the players, the goalkeeper and the head coach. The gap to Arsenal is five points with 28 league games left, and bookmakers still make Brighton long shots for the title, but the side that knocked Arsenal over at home in September is no longer being dismissed as a one-off.
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Brighton return to action after the international break away at Hull City on 22 November.
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