1) When was the last time Albion found themselves in the unenviable predicament faced by Bournemouth, Watford and Aston Villa on the final day of the season? May 1981, we think, when the Seagulls had to beat Leeds United at the Goldstone to stay in the top tier. They did, of course, winning 2-0. Albion put together an astonishing sequence of results to stay in the old Division One at the end of that season, including Gary Williams’ “worldy” at Roker Park.
2) The fact that since August 2017, so far 113 Premier League matches, Albion have never been in the bottom three. By Sunday evening that will crucially be 114 matches. Back in 1983 Albion fell into the relegation places in January and never recovered. Of course, with dear old Trelford Mills disallowing opposition goals all over the place, Fozzie’s beard and Jimmy Melia’s awful disco dress sense, no one noticed until they were 3-0 down in the FA Cup final replay. On the Tuesday After Albion’s semi-final win, at the rearranged match at Sunderland, the Black Cats’ boss Alan Durban said to his Albion counterpart Melia: “How about you stay up and we go to Wembley?”
3) Who do most Albion fans want to stay up? According to social media it is Aston Villa. The prospect of Leeds and Villa in the Premier League harks back to the halcyon days of late 90s English football when Albion were languishing in the lower reaches of the fourth tier.
4) How far can Graham Potter take this Albion team? Is staying up each season considered achievement enough? If the Adam Lallana stories are true, it suggests a significant marque signing early on in the window. Other big names may follow. A top ten finish may be on the cards. From 91st to European qualification in less than 25 years would be an astonishing feat.
5) The Albion revolution, bar a dip in around 2008-09, started 20 years ago at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium when Micky Adams’s team subsequently went on a run that saw them nearly make the fourth tier (League Two) play-offs that 1999-2000 campaign after quite a poor mid-season run. The spell, in 2001 and 2002, when the Seagulls soared with consecutive promotions to the Championship is still the most successful period in the club’s history. However, contemplating a fourth consecutive season in the Premier League, with a team full of international’s – Dutch and Belgian rather than Icelandic and Albanian – in a stadium that in normal times is packed with over 30,000 fans every home match, would have been beyond the comprehension of the Withdean faithful of the early noughties.
