SEASON REVIEW – 2021/22
Article and photos by Jed Vine
The 2021/22 season was my best season as a match-going fan so far. After 35 matches, 93 goals and 4 different stadiums, it has now concluded. Fans across the world have swiftly started to switch their focus onto the seasons to come. However, last season was special for me.
I am an Arsenal fan, and was able to watch the Gunners play eleven matches. This, in itself, is nothing special. But I was able to follow another club that means a lot to me throughout the entire campaign. I had the opportunity to purchase a Brighton and Hove Albion season ticket, and it led to the best season of my life. Whilst I would not class myself as a full-on Brighton supporter (in fear of being permanently labelled with the dreaded “plastic fan” tagline), I have followed the club closely and fondly for a long time. Therefore, I could not willingly pass up the chance to experience an entire season’s football from the perspective of a club I have cheered on since their time in the second tier. Since 2014/15, I have kept a close eye on Brighton’s results, beginning with a campaign that ended in a heartbreaking play-off semi-final loss to Crystal Palace. I have travelled to Wembley with the club, and that will forever remain a momentous occasion in my footballing journey. Whilst I understandably may never be truly embraced by Brighton fans due to my red-tinted allegiances, Brighton has had a special place in my heart for a very long time, having lived in the city for ten years and throughout my entire childhood.
I travelled down to the south coast from my home in Tonbridge for 16 Premier League matches, sitting in the same seat each time. East lower, Area E1E, Row A, Seat 142. That seat was my home for almost the entire season. This is the story of my 2021/22 season from such a special vantage point, as well as an exploration of the campaign through the lenses of the other clubs whose progress meant a great deal to me. In a season where Arsenal, Brighton, and my local club Maidstone United all had stellar campaigns, I was able to witness the good and the bad of all three clubs.
Matches/highlights
I went to five preseason games from July to the beginning of August. Having been locked down for so long, I was desperate to get back into football stadiums. My first game back was the pick of the bunch from preseason: a 4-2 win for Maidstone United over Charlton Athletic U23. Six goals in one match made for a very entertaining first game since the 1st of January 2020 (Arsenal 2-0 Man United). My other preseason games were of Bearsted 0-2 Maidstone, Arsenal LFC 2-1 Chelsea LFC, Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea and Brighton 0-2 Getafe.
The proper season kicked off for me with a 2-0 win for Brighton over Watford, and a journey to the Emirates to watch Arsenal lose 0-2 to Chelsea the following day. Brighton’s campaign had begun with a bang, whilst Arsenal lingered around the drop zone. Two days after my birthday, I witnessed an extraordinary National League South encounter between Maidstone and Concord Rangers. Two sendings off, including one for a goalkeeper handling the ball outside the area, and a late comeback from the home side resulted in a brilliant 2-2 draw at the Gallagher Stadium. September was rounded off by Brighton’s 2-1 win over Leicester. I had missed the home loss to Everton at the Amex due to my attendance at Reading Festival… I guess you know where my priorities lie on that front!
I went to six games in October, beginning with a 3-0 win for Arsenal U23 against Brighton U23 at the Emirates, and a journey to watch Brighton 0-0 Arsenal at the Amex the next day in horrible conditions. A disappointing 0-2 loss for Maidstone at home against Eastbourne Borough meant that spirits had begun to dampen. However, yet another weekend of back-to-back games lifted the mood. A Friday night at the Emirates was the stage for a 3-1 win for Arsenal over Aston Villa, where Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored what would be his last Arsenal goal. The Saturday evening atmosphere was not quite as exuberant, as Manchester City tore Brighton apart, with a final score of 1-4. My last game of the month was an EFL Cup round of 16 tie, in which Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners over Leeds United.
Very few goals were scored during the month of November. A 1-1 draw between Brighton and Newcastle (in which defender Lewis Dunk went in goal for 5 minutes!) was supplemented by a narrow 1-0 Arsenal win over Watford at the Emirates the following day. The month was rounded off with a 0-0 draw with Leeds at the Amex, with Brighton being especially profligate in front of goal. The goals did come at the Emirates in December, however, as Arsenal passed Southampton’s test by a 3-0 margin. One goal was especially sumptuous, as a gorgeously flowing team move was started by Aaron Ramsdale and led to an Alexandre Lacazette finish, winning PL Goal of the Month. My last game of 2021 was in the midst of a rise in Covid-19 cases across the South East of England. Brighton 0-1 Wolves was marred by the home side’s inability to select TEN first team players. This spike in coronavirus cases also led to my calendar year of football being cut short, as I too fell ill with Covid-19 (for the second time). This meant that I missed out on Arsenal’s 5-1 win over Sunderland in the EFL Cup, as well as Brighton’s 2-0 triumph over Brentford. Fun.
My first game back from my Covid-related absences was the thrilling 1-1 draw between Brighton and fierce rivals Crystal Palace, with Palace defender Andersen putting it into his own net in the 87′ minute to send a packed-out Amex wild. This was followed up by a midweek belter, as Brighton dominated the European champions Chelsea from start to finish. Despite this, the match still only ended in a 1-1 draw. January finished with a journey to the Emirates to watch the EFL Cup semi-final second leg, where soon-to-be cup champions Liverpool advanced to the final with a 0-2 away win at Arsenal.
February was a month of extreme highs and extreme lows, with all the lows unfortunately coming at the Amex stadium. Maidstone beat Bath City 2-1 in their journey towards the National League South’s summit, but Brighton were dismal in their 0-3 loss to now-relegated Burnley. One of my best games of the season came at the Emirates on Thursday 24th of February. Arsenal scored two late goals to beat Wolves 2-1 at the Emirates, with the winner coming in the 90+5′ minute of the match to send the stadium into raptures! Sadly, this form did not carry over to Brighton, as Aston Villa won 0-2 at the Amex two days later.
Brighton’s poor form at home continued for a while longer. The stadium’s atmosphere began to grow ever less tolerant, despite Brighton’s incredible away form putting the team on course for a club-record points tally. The away games were extraordinarily entertaining, yet the home fans continued to miss out on the best Potter’s team had to offer. The loss to Villa was followed by consecutive 0-2 losses to Liverpool and Tottenham, meaning that I had not seen Brighton win since the 19th of September 2021. Maidstone United, however, were hurtling towards the Vanarama NLS title. A goal inside two minutes was followed up by a goal in the seventh minute to give the home side a 2-0 advantage. St Albans clawed their way back to level it up at 2-2, but Maidstone were not to be denied. Charlton loanee Johl Powell scored a 90+6′ minute winner in the gorgeous sunshine to send the eventual champions four points clear at the top of the table!
April kicked off with a depressing 0-0 draw between Brighton and Norwich at the Amex; a game in which Brighton missed a penalty and boasted 2.21xG (expected goals) compared to Norwich’s 0.42xG, portraying Brighton’s wastefulness against a side at the foot of the table. However, I was finally able to witness Brighton’s unbelievable away form in person as I travelled to the Emirates. Arsenal’s top four hopes took an almighty blow as Brighton won 1-2 in North London. Enock Mwepu and Martin Ødegaard both scored incredible goals, but it was Graham Potter’s side who controlled much of the play that afternoon.
The penultimate game of my season ticket experience provided something that had not been especially prominent throughout much of my time at the Amex Stadium throughout 2021/22: GOALS! Brighton drew 2-2 with Southampton as James Ward-Prowse, phenomenally, scored his 14th PL free kick, as well as a beauty from outside the box as the Saints came back from a two-goal deficit to draw. Throwing away two more points from 2-0 up resulted in yet another huge disappointment for Brighton after a game at the Amex. As the fans walked out of the stadium on that day, no-one could surely have predicted the home match that was to come. All of the discontent and dissatisfaction with Brighton’s home form that I bore witness to was about to be completely and utterly eradicated.
Brighton 2-2 Southampton
An entire season of journeying to the south coast, to sit in the same seat at the same ground, in order to cheer on the same players and the same team… All of the miles travelled were worth it for my last game at the Amex. Brighton and Hove Albion, ASTOUNDINGLY, ran out 4-0 victors over Manchester United.
Brighton. FOUR.
Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo. Raphaël Varane. Bruno Fernandes. David de Gea. ZERO.
It truly was a festival atmosphere as soon as Moisés Caicedo scored his first PL goal against the team he grew up supporting.
Then came the manic, mental, unpredictable, unprecedented, incredible eleven minutes in the second half.
49′: Marc Cucurella blasts into the roof of the net with an unstoppable first-time strike and is overcome with emotion after his first PL goal.
57′: Goalkeeper Rob Sanchez sprays a delicious cross-field pass out to Cucurella, who passes inside to Leandro Trossard. Brighton’s number 11 finds Pascal Groß, and the German’s touch takes the ball away from World Cup winner and four-time Champions League winner Varane, before he slots the ball past de Gea in at the far post.
60′: United fall apart, and Groß plays a through pass to an unmarked Danny Welbeck. The former United player lifts the ball over an onrushing de Gea, and Diogo Dalot’s goal-line clearance smashes into Trossard’s midriff and into the back of the net for the home side’s fourth.
That’s right. The team that had scored the joint fewest home goals in England’s top four divisions somehow managed to score FOUR against the side boasting the largest collection of Premier league titles. Brighton’s win confirmed that United would finish the campaign with their lowest ever points tally, but all of the stadium’s energy was focused on Brighton. A magnificent 2021/22 campaign was coming to an end, and this match was the culmination of the endless number of games that I had witnessed where Brighton were deserving of more. A performance so brilliant that even Cristiano Ronaldo was left laughing at the halfway line, dumbfounded at the ease with which little old Brighton had quite literally carved open the biggest team in the country.
I was not at Brighton’s final home game of the season, as I decided instead to celebrate the season’s end at the Emirates, at the conclusion of a campaign that had seen over-achievements from both sides. Arsenal beat Everton 5-1, providing me with yet another party atmosphere. In a season where Arsenal came within one win of the Champions League, where Brighton collected their record points tally and registered their highest EVER league position of 9th in the Premier League, and where my local team won promotion to the highest division of non-league football by winning the National League South title, I can proudly say that I was able to witness it all. Lows, highs, outrageous goals, world-class players, and magnificent moments. The 2021/22 campaign had it all, and it was unequivocally my favourite season so far.
The knowledge that I had a specific seat reserved for me as I travelled to the Amex every other matchday provided me with a unique experience that I will never forget. I want to finish with a message of thanks. Thank you to Brighton, Arsenal, and Maidstone. Thank you for giving me memories that will last forever.
Article written and photos taken by Jed Vine
2021/22 – FACTS
Top 3 matches
1. Brighton 4-0 Man Utd (G: Caicedo 15′, Cucurella 49′, Groß 57′, Trossard 60′)
2. Maidstone 3-2 St Albans (G: Corne 2′, Binnom-Williams 7′, Jeffers 26′, 53′, Powell 90+6′)
3. Arsenal 2-1 Wolves (G: Hwang 10′, Pépé 82′, Sá (OG) 90+5′)
Goals: 93
Matches: 35
GpG (Goals per Game): 2.66
Most goals: Arsenal 5-1 Everton, Maidstone 4-2 Charlton Athletic U23
Top scorers: Martin Ødegaard – 3 (Arsenal v Southampton, Brighton, Everton), Leandro Trossard – 3 (Brighton v Newcastle, Arsenal, Man Utd), Sam Corne – 3 (Maidstone v Charlton U23, Concord, St Albans)
