Same story, different day for Brighton as they struggle against 'lesser' opposition - Ian Hart

The two games in four games syndrome rears its ugly head at the Albion yet again with another 1-1 Amex draw against perceived lesser opposition. All credit to Burnley keeper James Trafford, its perhaps the bigger understatement in recent years to say he kept the Clarets in it on Saturday.

The stats say he made 10 saves out of Brighton’s 29 shots, 11 on target, but to reiterate, that’s three home games, Fulham, Sheffield United and Burnley, three 1-1 draws in matches the Albion should have won by a country mile.

Take those dropped six points, and the Albion would be above Spurs in 5th!

Sceptics might say that it’s the same for most teams, the slings and arrows of the beautiful game, but that counts for very little with the Amex faithful. So, whilst we all know what the cause is, not taking our numerous chances and a squad at times decimated by injury, but what’s the solution?

To quote Basil Fawlty, the bleeding obvious is to take the chances created, in those three games the Albion had 58 attempts on goal, some of us older fans can remember a time when we didn’t create that many chances in a whole season! So, with the added involvement in the Europa league, is the squad big enough, and does fatigue play a part with two games a week?

The answer almost certainly comes with a caveat, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the levels of injury and unavailability that’s effectively blighted Albion’s campaign so far. Although I say blighted, even with the various blips, RDZ’s men still find themselves embroiled in European contention alongside moving on to the knockout stages in Europe early next year.

A related and very interesting stat is that the club have now scored in 32 consecutive games, setting a new club record, but on the flip, side are just one league game away from a perhaps unwanted re cord of 21 games without a clean sheet.

Dull its not, but what would two quality acquisitions in the January transfer window do to the whole dynamic?

And that along with the recovery of a number of key players could be the perfect outcome.

A somewhat vocal minority did express across social media and beyond in August that the squad wasn’t big enough, maybe they were right, maybe wrong, I still think the majority of the Amex faithful would have snapped your hand off at 8th place at this point.

Because that’s the crux, Albion can’t beat the three aforementioned EPL strugglers, but no one can or will rule out that the next two games, Marseilles at home and Arsenal away, could throw up back to back wins.

Fascinating stuff and certainly beats Darlington at home on a Tuesday in front of less than 3,000 supporters, 27 years ago now, but actually light years in footballing terms.