The hallmarks of the tainted Graham Potter era were missed chances, open goals passed up, and a crippling inability to beat teams occupying the bottom spots. Particularly so at the Amex. Lovely football, some great players, but would a comprehensive home victory have been too much to ask?

The distinguishing features of the Roberto De Zerbi era, so far, have been beautiful football, an avalanche of goals, and a welcome step change in attitude: we no longer hope for victory, we expect it.

Everton and Southampton away, we go to win and win handsomely. Liverpool at home in the league, or in the Cup - we play to win. Leicester away in the league, Evan Ferguson heads home an 88th minute equaliser and his first instinct is to retrieve the ball and push on for more.

Fuck taking the positives and accepting second best. What De Zerbi demands of his players is aggression, belief, and to win. The blood, the heart, and the balls. “Fifteen days ago they came here and we beat them 4-1, or whatever it was” remarked Lewis Dunk after Sunday’s cup victory over Liverpool, giving us a glimpse into the collective mindset of the dressing room. “We weren’t at our best, nowhere near it, but we ground it out and got the win… we feel like we can beat anyone”. You can Lewis, you absolutely can.

Five wins in seven games. The leading scorers throughout January across Europe’s major leagues. Eviscerating Liverpool in the league and defeating them again on the day that Jurgen Klopp promised “everything would be different”. These are heady times.

When Roberto first arrived we were promised something exciting, something modern - The Athletic’s James Horncastle summarised his approach as ‘Calcio Europeo, not Calcio Italiano’ (modern European attacking football, not traditional defensive Italian) - but what’s being served up at the moment is calcio fucking galactico.

But even more than the victories and goals and the joy, it’s the realisation that something totally transformative is taking place, right in front of us, that is making these days feel very special indeed.

The prevailing tactical trends of the last twenty years have been tika-taka, a low block plus counter-attacking approach, and gegenpressing. But now there’s something new, something better: De Zerbianism.

You can press us or choose not to, it doesn’t much matter. We will bait you, we will swarm, and we will beat you. Bellissimo, speciale, straordinario.

How many managers bring with them an entire ecosystem of devotees, followers not of a football club but of a man, a tactician, le divinità? Six months on from Roberto’s arrival I understand why. Who can resist worshipping at the church of De Zerbianism?

‘De Zerbi’s strategy transcends mere functionality as his tactical approach provokes us to question even our most deep-seated footballing beliefs. And just as a centre-half’s nonchalant in-possession pose seduces the opponent into vacating their positional slots and pressing closer to the ball, so too are we as spectators seduced into thinking that maybe, just maybe, football’s story isn’t over yet’ (Jamie Hamilton // @stirling_j).

‘Nothing can be built without the essence of the idea: mobility and short passing to unlock pressing and to foster talent and creativity higher up the pitch… that's what De Zerbianism is based on. Much more than an aesthetic obsession, building up from the back consistently and patiently has an ethos of pure intention with De Zerbi. Attract > create offensive spaces > attack those spaces’ (De Zerbian Church // @DeZerbianChurch).

Visionary futuristic tactics and footballing beliefs have seemingly been coupled with a warm reassuring touch amongst the squad, and a clear set of doctrines for each player to follow. It is footballing alchemy. Genius. Truly, we are blessed to have this conjured in the name of BHAFC.

The doctrine that defines Kaoru Mitoma’s role and positional play includes some of his own philosophies, taken from the thesis he wrote on dribbling a football past a defender at the University of Tsukuba. “I am conscious of shifting the opponent's centre of gravity. If I can move the opponent's body, I win,” said Mitoma in a recent interview, when discussing his findings.

This theory was put into beautiful practice on Sunday 29th January at 3.22pm, when Mitoma managed to make time stand still and drop Ibrahima Konate on his haunches, creating the tiny but essential parcel of space needed to bloot home the winner.

(Surely the conclusion to any thesis studying the art of dribbling a football past a defender… is to give the ball to Kaoru Mitoma.)

Images of Mitoma’s winning cup tie goal should be hung on the wall at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

Not just because it was exquisite perfection, but because of the cultural implications for the city of Brighton and Hove. 3.22pm was the moment, exactly, that the city’s club entered the national consciousness as the coming force in British football.

“Brighton are arguably the most well organised club in British, if not world, football… I suspect they have their eye on a top four spot… there’s a very good chance they’ll break up the established hierarchy this season and finish in the top four,” said Barry Glendenning on The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast. The Daily Mirror’s Colin Millar tweeted, “Brighton have lost Bissouma, Cucurella, White, Trossard, Mwepu, Burn, their manager, dropped star midfielder Caicedo, and are still dismantling the most expensively assembled teams in world football. What a club.”

Tim Spiers, speaking on The Athletic’s Totally Football Show said “Brighton don’t seem to have a natural ceiling, they’re better than Liverpool now, that is the thing that blows my mind’ .Sports writer Jeremy Wilson went a step further, calling us “one of British football’s most extraordinary success stories…everything Tony Bloom touches turns to gold”. I think it’s silverware, not gold, that Tony is hoping to handle in the near future, but the point still stands.

At 3pm on Saturday afternoon, against Bournemouth, our quest for European football (and silverware) resumes. A team occupying one of the bottom six league places, on a poor run of form, at home. Here we go again.

The events of January 2023 have significantly increased expectations about what this team and club might be capable of achieving - culminating in Mitoma’s museum artefact which has well and truly blown our cover.

Something amazing is happening, something new, orchestrated by a very special manager. Yet the challenge facing us on Saturday is the same old same old.

But if Roberto De Zerbi can get this right - and if De Zerbianism cannot fix this problem, then what can? We can start to look forward to not just loads more of that wonderful Calcio Europeo next season, but some calcio in Europa, for the very first time in our history.

Prega il signore.

Parker

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