Brighton are third after winning at the Etihad, with the league's best goal difference

Brighton sit third on 19 points after beating Manchester City, with the league's best goal tally. Hürzeler's side, the players, the Bloom model and what's next.

Brighton beat Manchester City today, and the surprise is only that it still feels like a surprise.

Yasin Ayari scored the only goal in the 11th minute at the Etihad, and Brighton held on for their first away win over City at the 18th attempt, per Opta in the Guardian. They are third on 19 points, with six wins, a draw and two defeats from nine, and they have scored 24 goals, more than anyone in the league. Their goal difference of +17 is also the best. The Guardian asked who would bet against Champions League qualification.

How Hürzeler built it

Fabian Hürzeler's team sold Baleba and van Hecke in the summer and still looks sharp. Four names carry it:

Maxim De Cuyper, the left-back, top of Brighton's Fantasy Premier League points with two goals and four assists.
Pascal Groß, three goals and six assists, the creator of the side.
Yasin Ayari, three goals, including the one at City.
Charalampos Kostoulas, the young striker with three goals and four assists.

Add Luka Vušković, the £46m centre-back from Tottenham, and Bart Verbruggen in goal, and it is a side with six league clean sheets in nine.

The Bloom method

Tony Bloom owns the club and is its chairman. The method is famous and it keeps working: sell at the peak, reinvest early. This summer's sales were Carlos Baleba to Manchester United (£65m), Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham (£52m) and Carl Rushworth to Coventry (£22.5m), per Wikipedia: roughly £140m for three players. The money went back into Vušković, Zadok Yohanna (£21.5m, AIK), Pascal Struijk (£15m plus add-ons, Leeds) and Chema Andrés (£15.5m, Stuttgart).

Most clubs would call that a risk. Brighton call it a spreadsheet, and so far the spreadsheet is right.

The season in three results

A 3-0 win over Arsenal on 19 September, in which Groß, Kostoulas and Chema Andrés scored. A 5-0 win over Crystal Palace. And a 2-0 loss at Liverpool on 25 October.

They also lost a League Cup tie at City on penalties, 4-3, after 2-2, on Wednesday. Georginio Rutter told the club's website the exit was a missed opportunity. Three days later they came back and won there in the league.

Brighton also play in the Conference League. They got past Tromsø 4-0 on aggregate in the play-off round, then beat Kauno Žalgiris 4-0 and drew 0-0 at Jablonec.

What to watch next

Getafe away on Thursday 5 November in the Conference League (20:00), then Brentford at the Amex on 8 November at 14:00, then Hull City away on 22 November. The league run is the story. If it holds past Brentford, nobody can call third a fluke.

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