At the end of Brighton & Hove Albion’s second league win in 14 games, Fabian Hurzeler walked on to the Brentford pitch, dragged his captain Lewis Dunk to his feet, and embraced him.
Shortly afterwards, Dunk and some of his team-mates stood in front of the away end pointing at James Milner, who, somewhat reluctantly, joined in the celebrations with double fist pumps and repeated roars. “Yes, yes!” Milner screamed, before Danny Welbeck, the second goalscorer in a much-needed victory, jumped on the back of the new Premier League record appearance holder.
These were moments that encapsulated how Hurzeler has turned to the old guard — to players older than him — in the 32-year-old German’s 90 minutes of need. Dunk, Milner and Welbeck formed a solid and wise spine of a team that ended a run of four defeats and two draws in the previous six away league games. This victory also brought a first away clean sheet in the league since November.
Dunk is 34 years old. Milner, 40, took Gareth Barry’s appearances record with his 654th outing in central midfield alongside the 34-year-old Pascal Gross. Welbeck is 35 and, in the 65th minute, Hurzeler introduced 34-year-old Joel Veltman at right-back in place of Mats Wieffer to help protect the lead provided in the first half by a ninth goal of the season in all competitions for Diego Gomez and Welbeck’s ninth in the league.
The average age of the outfield starters — excluding 23-year-old goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen — was 29. Veltman pushed the figure up to nearly 30 (29.8). They are big numbers in a league in which pace, youthful athleticism and energy are highly valued attributes.
They were brave calls by Hurzeler, especially starting with Milner for the first time in the calendar year at the expense of Carlos Baleba. Sections of the fanbase made their feelings known in a recent defeat at Fulham and a home draw with Everton, when Baleba was substituted while Milner was introduced in the closing stages.
James Milner is substituted late on against Brentford (Paul Harding/Getty Images)
Explaining his selection, Hurzeler told The Athletic after the match: “Away to Brentford, you need players who are reliable in every second of the game, because there is a throw-in and then there’s a corner. They are quite good at these kinds of things. So, you really need players who are able to defend these moments.
“On top of that, they understand the game; they have so much experience, so many games, so they could immediately transfer the match plan we had onto the pitch and then they know exactly what to do.
“And when we were leading, they had the quality to defend as a team, to make the distances between each other quite tight, so they (Brentford) had no chance to break through the middle, through our block.”
According to Opta, the average age of Hurzeler’s starting XI was 28 years and 355 days, their oldest in the Premier League this season and the 16th oldest across all sides.
That is a lot higher than in the previous game, the 3-0 loss at Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup (26 years and 229 days) and the 1-0 home defeat at the beginning of February against rivals Crystal Palace (25 years and 271 days), when Hurzeler was subjected to boos and taunts of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” by some supporters at the Amex Stadium. He questionably started both of those fixtures with 17-year-old Harry Howell on the right wing and Charalampos Kostoulas, 18, spearheading the attack.
Hurzeler has always placed a lot of faith in his leadership group of senior pros to help guide and develop young and talented players in the squad. They, in turn, have had Hurzeler’s back throughout a difficult period. The club press officer took the rare step of posting on social media in response to a report in the run-up to the Brentford game that Hurzeler has fallen out with several senior players, denouncing it as “complete and utter nonsense”. He added that it was “simply untrue and divisive”.
Milner’s shirt was the muddiest when, limping slightly, he was replaced by Baleba in the 90th minute, just when he seemed poised to complete a full league game for the first time since January 2024. It was indicative of a typically industrious (and composed) contribution on his landmark appearance. His first touch of the ball yelled nous — more of a placed punt than a pass to pin Brentford in their own half close to the corner flag.
On more than one occasion, Verbruggen released long balls down the middle of the pitch, which Gross, belying his advancing years, ran on to and which almost led to chances. Gross also set up Kaoru Mitoma for one of two opportunities to open the scoring. The Japan international should have done better.
Hurzeler pointed out that the performance was no better or worse than many others during the downturn, notably against Fulham and Everton. The difference? The game was managed better and key moments went for them, such as Nathan Collins coming straight off the Brentford bench to make a mess of a backheeled clearance from Jack Hinshelwood’s cross. It was a gift for Welbeck, and his first goal of the calendar year in first-half stoppage time provided breathing space.
Utilising Hinshelwood in a more advanced midfield role also worked for Hurzeler in a display underpinned by Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke shackling Brentford’s 17-goal striker, Igor Thiago. Hurzeler revealed that Dunk “has struggled sometimes with his knee through the whole season. A lot of people don’t know that. It’s very important to understand what he sacrifices for the team to get out of this situation. It’s just impressive”.
Hurzeler’s side are suddenly looking up again, six points below seventh-placed Brentford and nine points above the relegation zone. The slide has been painful since a 2-1 comeback win at home to Brentford in his 50th Premier League game in charge in November. Even so, 95 points have been accumulated in 65 matches under Hurzeler’s command, compared with 93 points over the corresponding period under his vaunted predecessor, Roberto De Zerbi.