It may not be the prize Burnley goalkeeper Arijanet Muric wanted but he should have something to show for his season. Sadly for him, it was Brighton’s goal-of-the-month award for April - by default: Muric’s inability to control a tame back pass at Turf Moor was Albion’s only goal in April. And that, it is safe to say, looked unlikely when Roberto De Zerbi’s buccaneers finished as the Premier League’s fourth-highest scorers last season, or when they reached the October international break with the most goals in the division. Now they have the second-fewest in 2024. And De Zerbi will depart on Sunday, after Brighton’s final game of the season against Manchester United, with both club and manager agreeing to part ways.
Then again, a week of European semi-finals offers an illustration of how things have gone wrong for De Zerbi. These sort of games, it seemed, would be his destiny next season: the only question was whether it would be with Liverpool or Barcelona or Bayern Munich or someone else. Perhaps it would have been a new addition to Brighton’s fixture list this season. Instead, with Albion out of Europe, and at risk of finishing in the lower half of the Premier League, De Zerbi may have a longer wait to feature in the biggest club competitions in European football.
