Fabian Hürzeler is allowed to be on the sidelines against Chelsea on Saturday after all. Brighton’s coach wants to learn from his red card against Nottingham – even though he almost felt forced to take it.
In an attempt to start six unbeaten league games for the first time in club history, Brighton & Hove Albion will have to do without their goal scorer on Saturday at Chelsea, but not without their coach. And somehow both are connected.
Although he was sent off for the first time in his fifth Premier League game last Sunday in the heated 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest, Fabian Hürzeler avoided a suspension. The 31-year-old reported this on Thursday after a clarifying conversation with referee boss Howard Webb. “I know what the punishment will be and I know I’ll be on the sidelines against Chelsea.”
Hürzeler had left his technical area in anger towards the end of the game against Nottingham after Morgan Gibbs-White fouled forward Joao Pedro and was sent off, along with Gibbs-White, who was shown a yellow-red card, and guest manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who complained about it too vehemently.
“During the game, I didn’t know what I was sent off for,” Hürzeler explained. ”I heard that I was sent off for entering the field of play. If you get sent off for that, then in my opinion you have to suspend a lot of coaches, because it happens during an emotional phase of the game.” Of course, coaches should act as role models, but sometimes emotions are necessary: “In this case, it was about protecting Joao Pedro. If I hadn’t shown any emotion, the player would think, ‘The coach doesn’t care about me’.”
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Hürzeler, who had already seen yellow for the first time on the third matchday, still wants to “learn from it” and “accept” the punishment. He now knows “how quickly you can get red in this league”. Fortunately for Monday’s Premier League manager of the month August, unlike in the Bundesliga, this does not necessarily result in a suspension.
While Joao Pedro suffered an ankle injury in White-Gibbs’ foul and will be absent for at least the Chelsea game, Brajan Gruda could make his debut for Brighton against the in-form Blues. The €31.5 million summer signing from Mainz, who was out for weeks with an unspecified injury, could potentially join the squad for the game against Chelsea, according to Hürzeler. “We’ll see how quickly he can rejoin the team and get used to the intensity of training.”