Are Brighton genuine contenders to qualify for the Champions League?

Wingerless, without Danny Welbeck and third in the Premier League. Brighton spent the summer losing some of their best players; they are dealing with a growing injury list; and their outstanding player this season has been a 35-year-old they signed in January for £1.7m. In spite of that, five games into the new Premier League season, they have scored more goals than any other team (16), they have the best goal difference in the league (+11) and they have dismantled the champions, beating Arsenal 3-0 before the international window.

This could have been a transitional season for the club. After finishing eighth in the Premier League last season and qualifying for the Conference League, they sold or loaned out 20 players. There were some headline departures: Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for £70m, Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham for £52m, and Danny Welbeck, their top scorer last season with 13 league goals, to Chelsea for £5m.

If the transfer activity had not given Fabian Hürzeler enough of a headache, his two starting wingers – Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh – picked up injuries. To make matters worse, forwards Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter joined them on the treatment table. The lineup beat Arsenal was not the one Hürzeler would have envisioned when drawing up his plans in pre-season, but Brighton have shot up the Premier League, booked their place in the group stage of the Conference League and knocked Manchester United out of the League Cup. They have played eight games in all competitions so far, keeping five clean sheets.

With so many players either sold or injured, a void opened up. Into ​this stepped Pascal Gross, who returned to the club from Borussia Dortmund in January for just £1.7m. The deal read more like a nostalgia play than business that would shape a season, but no Premier League player has been involved in more goals this season than Gross, who has scored three and set up three more.

His importance cannot be overstated. In a squad that has lost much of its creative output, he has been the glue. He can drop deep alongside the defence to help Brighton build from the back, float into spaces to create, or break into the box as a late runner. With Chema Andrés doing the defensive work behind him, Gross can roam, dictate attacks and lead the press from higher up the pitch. He works tirelessly. He has created more chances than any other player in the league this season (15) and, perhaps most impressive given he is 35, he has covered the second most distance (59.7km).

“You can really trust him and he makes the teammates around him better,” said Hürzeler after the Arsenal win. That trust is becoming increasingly important as so many of the old-guard at Brighton have left. Welbeck, Joël Veltman, Solly March and Adam Webster moved on, and James Milner retired. Lewis Dunk, Jason Steele and Gross are the last of a dying breed of Brighton veterans.

Hürzeler knows the importance of these players. When asked how his new-look team had settled so quickly this season, he said: “It comes back to the players. I have to give them a lot of praise. I call Jason Steele, Pascal Gross and Lewis Dunk ‘social leaders’. They are important because they integrate the new players quite fast.” With 290 appearances over two spells at the club under four different managers, Gross is one of the few people left at the club who players – and his young manager – can look to for guidance.

But Gross is not an exception to how Brighton have coped with the squad overhaul. In true Brighton fashion, the players waiting in the wings have stepped effortlessly into the team. Maxim De Cuyper, originally signed as a left-back, has covered for Mitoma at left wing. The 25-year-old has three goals and three assists in all competitions this season. He does not have the same dribbling ability that Mitoma does, but his running power and delivery bring a different type of threat.

Further up the pitch, 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas has six goal involvements, twice as many as he managed last season. Ferdi Kadioglu has switched to right-back. Olivier Boscagli has covered at left-back while Malick Yalcouyé, Yasin Ayari, Hinshelwood and the teenage Luka Vuskovic, a £46m club-record signing from Tottenham, have played important roles.

Brighton have nine different scorers in the Premier League this season. Their goals and position in the table are the obvious markers of their fast start, but the more telling numbers come from what happens when they do not have the ball. Despite the summer upheaval, Hürzeler’s demand for intensity has remained unchanged, and Brighton are pressing as intently as ever. No side in the league averages fewer passes allowed per defensive action than Brighton’s 7.4. And no team has recorded more high turnovers than their 56 this season.

Their off-the-ball work was most evident against Arsenal, who could not play their usual controlled game. Brighton made nine final-third regains, the most by any Premier League side against Arsenal since Liverpool also managed nine in December 2023.

Bart Verbruggen, speaking after the game, suggested that intensity is central to what Hürzeler has built. “You could see so clearly his ideas – the way we win the second balls, the way we are in front of our opponents, the way we win our personal duels, how tough it is to play against us when we bring that intensity. That is the DNA of this team and that’s from the gaffer.” Whoever Brighton have on the pitch, Hürzeler demands his players work tirelessly to make life difficult for opponents. It reaped its reward against Arsenal, forcing a side that had conceded once all season into an afternoon of hurried passes and forced mistakes.

When asked after the game if Brighton were involved in the title race this year, Gross replied with a swift “no”. Five games is nowhere near enough evidence to be considering them for a first Premier League title, but qualifying for the Champions League may well be within their reach. They lead the league in goals scored, big chances created, average possession, clean sheets, expected goals and shots on target per match.

There are, however, reasons to keep the champagne on ice. A tough run of fixtures lies in wait: Liverpool and Manchester City away this month, unbeaten Brentford at home – and playing in Europe will add fatigue and injuries. Their injury list will only be tested further. And Gross is 35; asking a player his age to sustain this level of output across a full season is a lot.

In the summer, Brighton looked like a team entering a transition phase. Instead they are riding high in the Premier League. For a side that have lost their top scorer, both first-choice wingers to injury, and most of their senior leadership group in a single summer, that is a remarkable achievement. Being third is something else entirely.