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It feels like ages since we last played, and that’s because it is. Since the Napoli debacle in early September, we’ve only played Ajax at home as our league fixtures against Wolves and Chelsea got postponed. A number of our players have been involved with their national teams this past week, but other than that it’s mostly been about us taking advantage of the unexpected breather, refocusing to iron out what we’ve been doing wrong, and several players returning from injury lay-offs to give us some much-needed squad depth. The Queen carking it when she did may have come at a good time for us. That said: Verisimilitude. Incision. Control. Tenacity. Organisation. Ruthless efficiency. Yer ma. I don’t ask for much. The sides met at Anfield on 13th May, on the last day of the Premier League season 2017/18. Chris Hughton’s team had done well in their debut season and had already secured their place in the top flight for another season at least, and they had largely been better than the sum of their parts. The Reds were looking to finish the domestic season on a high, had already secured a Champions League place for the following season, and still had a trip to Kyiv to come, ill-fated though it would turn out. Brighton’s players were well and truly on the beach for this one. We got 4 but could easily have doubled that had it not been for some wasteful finishing. Mo bagged his 44th goal of an incredible debut season to set us on our way, finishing sharply into the bottom corner after the ball broke to him inside the Brighton box. Degsy doubled our advantage, rising high at the back post to meet a left wing cross and bullet a header into the net. Dominic Solanke had been showing fleeting moments of promise all season but at the same time, Jurgen had found a forward set-up that suited his first-choice players down to the ground, and Solanke’s style didn’t really complement it. He got his first and only competitive goal for the club in the second half, running onto Mo’s through ball and rifling his effort high into the net. There was still time for Robbo to score his first goal for the club, firing low past a defender on the line when Ings’ low left wing cross wasn’t cleared properly by the Brighton backline. 4-0 it finished. The forward trio of Mo, Bobby and Sadio would go on to become one of the best attacks in our history, and certainly one of the finest in Europe in the past decade. Ryan Reynolds was atop the box office on 13th May 2018, reprising his role as Wade Wilson in the Deadpool sequel (called Deadpool 2 in case you were unsure). Just as in the first one, he is lewd, crude and cynically funny. Unlike the first one, this film ties in much more with the X-Men franchise. Also unlike the first one, there is no need to spend time showing us how and why he is what he is, he just is, so they can get on with the plot. Just go with it and roll with the ludicrousness of it all, and you’ve got one of the more entertaining comic book heroes (or is Deadpool an antihero?) to be depicted on the silver screen. Staying with the comic book theme, May 13th 2018 saw the death of Margot Kidder make the news headlines. She is best remembered for starring opposite Christopher Reeve in the Superman franchise, playing feisty reporter Lois Lane. Hers is the most notable big screen portrayal of Clark Kent’s squeeze. Kate Bosworth’s version just seemed too young to be believable as an experienced reporter, and Amy Adams was never given that much to do. Kidder played a starring role in the most memorable sequence of any Superman iteration, as we see Clark’s first transformation into his alter ego to rescue her and the falling helicopter. There have long been stories of the cast of Superman being cursed as nearly all of them befell some horrible issues in their personal lives. Reeve’s horse-riding accident is the best known, but Kidder for years struggled with drug and alcohol addiction along with depression. The coroner’s report following her death again put the spotlight on her struggles with drugs and alcohol. It’s hard to know what toll fame and industry pressure can have on a person. Would they fall down that path without all that? I write this before the final round of international games, but the Brighton game should see us with more strength in depth and certainly more options available, both to have some cohesion and to also look closer to the team of the past 3-4 years. Jurgen won’t have had all the unexpected available time with the players because of the international break, but he, the coaching staff and the players will have had time to take a breather and take stock of the situation the team has found itself it due to the extremely indifferent start to the season. Brighton have had a bit of upheaval of their own to contend with, as manager Graham Potter upped sticks for the bright lights of the capital to join Chelsea. The Seagulls have replaced him with Roberto De Zerbi, a virtual unknown outside of Italy. He’d led Sassuolo in Serie A for a few seasons, with his sides playing a progressive brand of football, with players like Berardi, Locatelli and Raspadori regularly featuring for the national side. They were comfortably mid-table and capable of challenging for a European spot. He left for Shakhtar Donetsk in 2021 and they were top of the pile until the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Again, his team praised with their style of play. He’s been on the radar of the likes of Juventus too. By landing at Brighton, it looks like he’s got a squad pretty well suited to his approach. This is not the game for a bounce for them. That can come later, but not this weekend. Let’s finally rid ourselves of our early season malaise and get ourselves back on track. We’ve got 4 Champions League group games plus a League Cup tie to fit in along with a number of league games before the season takes a break for the World Cup in November. Let’s see signs of progress/normality shall we.