Brighton and Hove Albion captain Lewis Dunk said that no one at the club was getting carried away by their superb start to the season.
The Seagulls’ momentum continued as they claimed a 1-0 win at the Etihad yesterday (Saturday 31 October) to move within two points of Manchester City who started and ended the day at the top of the table.
Yet Dunk was keen to manage expectations.
He said: “The Premier League’s not an easy league. Every game you go into is hard.
“It’s a long old season. Who knows where we’ll end up. Hopefully, we can win many more games and be somewhere we want to be.”
Brighton’s victory avenged their loss to City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday (28 October).
The club stayed in the Manchester area between the two games and Dunk felt that the time spent together strengthened the unity of the team.
He said: “It’s been good being together as a team for the last few days and I think you saw that togetherness out there fighting at the end.”
Albion head coach Fabian Hürzeler refused to set lofty ambitions after Yasin Ayari scored the winner.
The Seagulls also beat Premier League champions Arsenal in September and have enjoyed a flying start to the campaign – but the German insisted that he was not looking beyond the next fixture.
He said: “The only thing we’re focused on at the moment is that we are in a big process – a process where we go home now and analyse the game and take the right things out of it.
“Then we try to prepare for Getafe. That’s another big challenge for us in the Conference League – a different game. We only try to go from game to game.”
Hürzeler praised the attitude of match-winner Ayari, who was one of two players to miss from the spot as Brighton lost to City on penalties on Wednesday.
The coach said: “He was very disappointed after the game. But every morning you can wake up and decide if you’re disappointed from the day before – what you can’t change any more – or do you set the tone in a new way.
“I told the players you can decide how you approach the next game, stand up and have the belief that on Saturday you will have a different feeling after the game.
“That is what Yasin did and it was an impressive performance, not only for scoring the goal but he ran a lot and defended quite well. He was a big part of why we won the game.”
Brighton took control through Ayari on 11 minutes but needed to withstand intense pressure from City, particularly in the latter stages, to secure the three points.
Hürzeler said: “We expected a game where we had to suffer. Coming to this place is very difficult, facing one of the best teams in the world.
“I’m really proud of how my players stuck together. They had a little bit of luck but, in the end, deserved it because they worked hard for it.”
