January of the 2025-26 season started with a bang for Brighton. Or to be a more accurate, ein Knall. The Albion brought Pascal Gross back from Borussia Dortmund for a much needed boost to performances on-the-pitch and morale off it.
Brighton had begun December 2025 sitting pretty in fifth place in the Premier League, just two points off second place Manchester City.
The Seagulls ended it down in 14th after failing to win any of their six matches over the most festive month of the year.
Fan unrest was growing by the game. So what better way to improve the mood than re-signing one of the most popular Albion players of all time the instant the winter transfer window opened?
Albion cruise past Clarets as Gross makes his return
The first team Brighton faced following the January return of Gross were Burnley, who would go onto end the 2025-26 season relegated from the Premier League.
Not only that, but the Clarets arrived in Sussex on a run of 10 games without victory and missing eight players including their entire first choice defence.
The Albion at home against poor opposition in terrible form and ravaged by injuries? Burnley winning seemed the only logical outcome.
Yet Brighton defied those expectations via a 2-0 success which was unnervingly comfortable. Georginio Rutter created and scored the first goal with a run from deep which took him past three Burnley players before being tackled in the box.
Brajan Gruda squared the loose ball to Yari Ayari. His shot hit Charalampos Kostoulas to deflect back into the path of the now-stood up Rutter. The finish from the horse-loving Frenchman across Martin Dubravka was excellent.
Ayari added the second goal himself two minutes into the second half. Kaoru Mitoma and Ferdi Kadioglu linked up down the left.
They fed Kostoulas, who showed great strength to hold the ball up before releasing Diego Gomez with a cheeky backheel.
Burnley managed to dispossess Gomez but only succeeded in giving the ball straight back to Ayari. He picked out the bottom corner to wrap up the win with 43 minutes still to play.
Gross came off the bench with 20 minutes remaining to a rapturous reception. Suddenly, everything seemed right in the world.
Willkommen zu Hause, mein Kaiser.
Brighton make it four points from City for 2025-26 with January draw
A Wednesday night trip to Manchester City seven days into the new year showed the Premier League fixtures computer has no sense of humour.
Those Brighton fans who made the long midweek trip to the Etihad Stadium were, however, rewarded by seeing the Albion take a point.
And with Pep Guardiola quitting City at the end of the 2025-26 season, the January draw meant Fabian Hurzeler went unbeaten as Brighton head coach against one of the greatest managers of all time.
No wonder Guardiola refused to shake Hurzeler’s hand after the full time whistle. Guardiola’s excellence is matched by his lack of class when things do not go his way.
An interesting evening for Diego Gomez
A 1-1 draw was arguably the right result from a chaotic 90 minutes of football. Gomez in particular had an interesting evening.
He conceded a 42nd minute penalty when stupidly dangling out a leg towards Jeremy Doku in the box. Doku initiated contact and went to ground in theatrical style for a spot kick awarded after Thomas Bramall watched the incident back on the VAR monitor.
If I were Mr Bramall, I would have booked Gomez for being so moronic and then booked Doku too for diving. As for the penalty, Erling Haaland stuck it into the bottom corner and City led.
Mitoma equalised on the hour mark. Ayari lofted a pass from the right flank over to Mitoma on the left. Mitoma surged past two City defenders and hit a low shot which zipped off the surface, defying Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Brighton could have won it after that, only to squander a gilt-edged opportunity. No prizes for guessing who the culprit was.
Gomez was unmarked, five yards out and with the whole goal to steer the ball into after being found by a Mitoma cross.
The Paraguayan midfielder somehow managed to kick the ball sideways, producing a magnificent clearance for City.
Brighton secure first ever FA Cup win over Manchester United
Four days after taking on City at the Etihad, Brighton were in action the other side of Manchester. Old Trafford lay in wait in the third round of the FA Cup.
Manchester United were managerless at the time following the sacking of Ruben Amorim. Any hopes caretaker boss Darren Fletcher had of getting the job full time were extinguished as the Albion ran out 2-1 winners for their first ever FA Cup win over United. Revenge of sorts for 1983 and 2023.
Even more pleasing was the result stuck one, big middle finger up to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and United’s ticket policy.
Brighton were entitled to an allocation of 9,000 for the match. United opted to charge £55 for a ticket in the away end. For a Sunday night game. With no way of getting back to Sussex via public transport afterwards.
The admission fee put off enough Seagulls supporters that only 800 or so attended. Allowing United to sell the 90 percent of potential away seats untaken to their own tourist fans for prices which probably exceeded even £55. A pure-and-simple money grab.
Gruda steals the show… and is then loaned to RB Leipzig
Gloriously, those tourists had little to cheer. Jason Steele made two superb saves early on from Diego Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.
Having survived that early pressure, Brighton took the lead on 12 minutes. Rutter saw an effort cleared off the line by Patrick Dorgu. The rebound fell kindly to Gruda, who lashed home.
Gruda being in such sparkling January form for Brighton made it even more of a mystery that he was sent to RB Leipzig on loan for the second half of the 2025-26 season, not long after his star turn at Old Trafford.
The second Albion goal was scored by Danny Welbeck, maintaining his fine scoring record against his boyhood club.
Gruda turned provider, laying off a square pass to Welbeck. Dat Guy took one touch and belted the ball into the roof of the net for his eighth goal against United and sixth at the Theatre of Dreams as an opposition player.
Benjamin Sesko halved the deficit when heading home a corner. That might have set up a nervous finish but just four minutes later, overexuberant teenage substitute Shea Lacey picked up his second yellow card to leave the home side down to 10.
Brighton easily held on for a place in round four. They deserved a better reward than a trip to Liverpool.
Sensational Kostoulas overhead rescues Brighton a point against Bournemouth
The January pantomime season was still going strong when Brighton hosted Bournemouth in the most slapstick show of the 2025-26 season.
Referee Paul Tierney provided a villain. The Cherries players produced some comically bad amateur dramatic acting to waste time, ranging from fake cramp to fake head injuries.
And Brighton played like a three-legged animal for most of the night, giving a pretty awful team performance until the final five minutes.
That was when the script followed all good pantomimes, with a young hero riding to the rescue. Kostoulas produced an unbelievable moment of magic to score a stunning bicycle kick, salvaging the Albion a 1-1 draw in the 91st minute.
The Kosotulas overhead cancelled out a farcical first half opener for Bournemouth. Amine Adli was originally shown a yellow card by Mr Tierney for diving in the box after a coming together with Bart Verbruggen when the two players attempted to get to a low Marcus Tavernier cross.
“It will be bloody funny if VAR awards a penalty now he has booked him,” said more than one person in the West Upper.
Turns out it was far less funny in practice than theory. As we found out when Mr Tierney was sent to the monitor after a lengthy delay, changed his mind and gave the Cherries a spot kick successfully converted by Tierney.
The James Milner Conspiracy
January ended with fuel poured on the fire of a Brighton fan conspiracy which took hold in the middle of the 2025-26 season involving James Milner.
A series of pointless cameo substitute outings which cost the Albion points led some Seagulls supporters to conclude Milner had it written in his contract that he had to break the Premier League appearance record of Gareth Barry.
It might sound like the sort of theory peddled by Matt ‘Makes You Think’ Le Tissier on Twitter. But there was enough substance to it for the BBC to ask the Albion if such a clause did exist.
Exhibit A came away at Fulham. Brighton led going into half time thanks to a thunderbolt from the in-form Ayari.
Samuel Chukwueze equalised for the Cottagers entering the final 20 minutes. After which Hurzeler opted to remove Baleba and replace him with Milner. Despite the game being finely poised and Baleba doing an outstanding job protecting the back four.
Lo and behold, Brighton went and conceded a free kick in the exact sort of area Baleba had been expertly covering. Up stepped Harry Wilson to beat Verbruggen with an injury time free kick as the Albion threw away a point to lose 2-1.
Brighton fans irritated by conceding 97th minute equaliser
Little did we know even worse was to come seven days later when Everton visited the Amex. Gross struck his first goal back in Brighton colours with 73 minutes played.
Van Hecke played a pass out of defence and into the feet of Ayari, who quickly swiveled to cross from the right.
Substitute Kostoulas produced a dummy as clever as it was sensational. That left Gross to clinically the sweep the ball into the far corner for his first goal since re-joining the Albion from Borussia Dortmund.
A finish which should have given the Albion all three points. Except Hurzeler decided to bring Milner on in the 96th minute. A totally needless substitution with just 30 seconds of the indicated stoppage time remaining.
Milner’s introduction necessitated an extra 30 seconds being added. 30 seconds in which Beto equalised for the Toffees.
It was a seriously irritating result at the end of a week when “an anonymous source” told club spokesman Andy Naylor to write about decision-makers being irritated by public criticism of Hurzeler.
A penny for their thoughts then for the criticism which was about to come Hurzeler’s way when Brighton kicked off February with a home game against Crystal Palace…
January 2026 record: P6 W2 D3 L1 F7 A11
Results: 2-0 v Burnley (H), 1-1 v Manchester City (A), 2-1 v Manchester United (A), 1-1 v Bournemouth (H), 1-2 v Fulham (A), 1-1 v Everton (H)
League position at the end of the month: 13th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Ferdi Kadioglu
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