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In recent weeks, Brighton and Hove Albion’s 24-year-old Malian midfielder Yves Bissouma has increasingly been linked with a Liverpool move as a potential summer replacement for Gini Wijnaldum.
Inevitably, that meant that eventually the player would be asked about his future. And perhaps unsurprisingly, Bissouma was quick to dismiss any transfer chatter and insist his focus is on the present.
“I don’t have much to say about that because I’m at Brighton for the moment,” Bissouma said this week. “I consider myself a Brighton player, so the most important thing right now is to stay up.
“We’ll try and stay up and see how things go next season. I think that we’ve got a very good team. We deserve our place in the Premier League. I think that we deserve to be higher up in the table.”
Few would disagree with that, as Brighton—who currently sit in 17th but are a seemingly safe seven points clear of the drop—appear the unluckiest side in the Premier League by a significant margin.
As per Understat, Brighton’s expected points this season are 55, which would see them in fifth. Instead they have 34, a full 21 points less. The second unluckiest side, Fulham, gas underperformed by 12.
They have 16 fewer goals than expected goals modelling says they should, the league’s worst expected goals underperformance. They’ve conceded four more than their expected goals against.
Brighton face Leeds, Wolves, West Ham, Man City, and Arsenal in their final five, after which we’ll know if they’ve overcome their bad luck and survived—and if Bissouma will be there next season.