Pascal Groß, 35, Is Rewriting Brighton's Creative Ceiling
Brighton sit third in the Premier League, and data from The Analyst (Opta) shows the 35-year-old German is still the side's chief chance-creator.
Brighton & Hove Albion's rise to third in the Premier League owes much to a player most clubs would be resting rather than relying on. Pascal Groß, 35, has produced a run of form that stands out even among a weekend full of veteran heroics across the division, according to data published by The Analyst (Opta).
Jordan Henderson, at 36 years and 115 days, had his own moment for Chelsea against Bournemouth, scoring twice and setting up a third to become the oldest Chelsea player with three goal involvements in a single Premier League match, surpassing a mark previously held by Gianluca Vialli. Groß, born just over a year after Henderson, was doing something similarly rare in Brighton's colours.
An assist streak that echoes Giggs
Groß set up Maxim De Cuyper for the opening goal in Brighton's 2-0 win at Sunderland, extending his run of providing an assist in three straight Premier League matches. At 35 years and 117 days, that made him the oldest player to manage the feat since Ryan Giggs did it in February 2012, aged 38 years and 68 days, per The Analyst (Opta).
The streak began with two assists in a 5-0 win over Coventry City and continued with another in the 3-0 defeat of Arsenal just before the international break. Those contributions have come at a point in the season when Brighton have won three straight league matches by a combined scoreline of 10-0.
Still the league's busiest creator
Groß has created 18 chances in the Premier League this season, more than any other player. Six of those are classified as big chances, opportunities from which a team would be expected to score, a tally bettered only by Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, who has seven.
Not all of that creativity comes from set pieces, which Groß still takes for Brighton. He has created 13 chances from open play, again second only to Gibbs-White, who has 15, The Analyst (Opta) reports.
His passing data tells a similar story of selectivity over volume. Groß has made 62 line-breaking passes this season, only the joint-41st most in the league, yet 13 of them have led to a shot within ten seconds, a figure beaten only by Bruno Fernandes and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Three of his line-breaking passes have led directly to a goal within that same window, the joint-highest total in the competition.
He has also covered more distance than any other player in the Premier League this season, 72.5km. Distance covered does not by itself prove a player is working harder than his teammates, but for a 35-year-old to top that chart is still a notable detail.
A second spell outperforming the first
Groß first joined Brighton from Ingolstadt in 2017 and left for Borussia Dortmund in 2024, recording 32 goals and 52 assists across 261 appearances in his original spell. He returned to the club in January this year, and in 30 games back in Brighton colours has five goals and seven assists.
Eight of those goal involvements, four goals and four assists, have arrived in just nine appearances this season, a concentration of output that underlines how central he has become again under manager Fabian Hürzeler, who is two years his junior.
Hürzeler compared his midfielder to fine wine after the win over Arsenal. "I said, I think in my last press conference, that you can compare him a little bit with a good wine. The older he gets, the better he is," he told reporters.
The manager also pointed to qualities beyond the pitch. "He has the skill of creating social bonds between all the players we have. We have so many different nationalities, so many different generations, and he has an understanding of all these dynamics. He brings these different backgrounds together and I think that's something we sometimes underestimate," Hürzeler said.
Brighton's wider form backs up the numbers. The Seagulls sit third in the Premier League and have reached the fourth round of the League Cup following a comeback win at Old Trafford against Manchester United, with Groß central to a side that has conceded nothing across its last three league fixtures.