Brighton already have their Yves Bissouma replacement and the goals will soon arrive for Jakub Moder

Or perhaps the reason that the Polish international is still awaiting his first Premier League goal comes down to something entirely more plausible than the plot of a future Christopher Nolan movie (please direct all future royalties to WeAreBrighton. com, thanks Chris).

Maybe Moder put his shoes on the table when he moved into his first home in England? Was an umbrella opened mistakenly indoors? Has he passed someone on the stairs? Spilt some salt and not made amends by throwing a pinch over his shoulder? Forgotten to salute a magpie crossing his path and ask how its wife is?

Albion fans have been talking about Moder's lack of luck on the scoring front for several months now. Between August and December, it looked like it could be put down to a flaw in his skillset.

Whenever he got a sight of goal, he either failed to test the goalkeeper sufficiently or fired off target. Work on the training ground and improvements in his game were the obvious way to break the duck.

Events of the past two months however have cast doubt on this belief. Perhaps Moder is cursed to never score a top flight goal after all, or at least until Tony Bloom hires a witch doctor to sacrifice a chicken under a full moon at the Amex and release Moder from this spell.

The evidence of both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup is that Moder does know where the back of the net is. He found it away at Cardiff City in the second round of the former competition back in August and then did likewise in the third round of the latter cup at West Brom last month. Two goals from four knockout appearances this season compared to none in 23 league matches.

Now, you could raise the point here that Moder scores against Championship back lines but not Premier League defences. And whilst you would be right, it is not a case of him only having the quality to net against opponents from the second tier of English football.

In internationals, Moder has goals against Ukraine to his name and famously, England. He announced himself to football fans in this country not with his dynamic performances in central midfield after arriving at the Amex from Lech Poznan in January 2021 but by scoring against England at Wembley two months later.

That same Three Lions defence went onto make it all the way to the final of Euro 2020 without conceding a goal from open play and yet Moder found a way to breach it.

The Albion's past two matches have just added to the sense that something unnatural is at play. At Watford, Moder placed two fierce efforts out of the reach of Ben Foster. Both ended up repelled by outrageous blocks the likes of which Hornets defenders will never make again in their lives.

What happened at Manchester United 72 hours later however was on an another level all together. Moder could have done little more when putting a powerful header towards the top corner of the United goal, only for David De Gea to fly through the air faster than the speed of sound to claw the ball away.

Against any other goalkeeper in the world, the back of the net bulges. Moder just so happened to produce an unstoppable effort against the one superhuman goalkeeper who actually stood a small chance of saving it.

It takes something special to beat De Gea when he is in the sort of form of the current season. Moder thought he mad managed it in the second half, an intuitive looping effort from 30 odd yards that had the United goalkeeper scrambling.

This time, it was the crossbar that intervened as the ball appeared to move at the last minute to thwack the woodwork rather than dropping over De Gea's outstretched hand and in.

Everything that could conspire so far this season to stop Moder getting that first Brighton goal has done so. And the longer that the drought goes on, the better I am starting to think it is that Moder doesn't get the monkey off his back.

There is the possibility that after the pressure of opening his Albion account lifts, one goal very quickly becomes two. Two very quickly becomes three. Three very quickly becomes four and before you know it, the floodgates open and Moder cannot stop scoring.

If that were to happen, he would not be a Brighton player for much longer. The ease at which he has transitioned to the Premier League compared to other young players who the Albion sign from Euorpe with similar profiles only to then loan out instantly makes you forget Moder is still only 22.

Even in a squad as versatile as the Albion, he has shown extraordinary flexibility to perform as a holding midfielder, a central midfielder, a number 10, a second striker and a left wing back.

His 6'2 frame makes him a threat in the air and he has an extraordinary engine allowing him to cover vast swathes of pitch. Once he has a little more experience under his belt, he screams box-to-box midfielder of the type who go for many millions of pounds beyond the nine Brighton paid to Lech for his services.

Should Moder suddenly become a rich source of goals, then the owners of the biggest clubs in Europe will follow Tony Bloom's lead and rock up to the Amex in a Skoda with offers that the Albion might find too good to refuse.

With Yves Bissouma looking more likely to leave this summer with each passing week that there is no new contract news, Moder's importance to Brighton will only increase.

There is a growing feeling that we are watching another special player in Moder develop. A few more weeks without a goal seems a good trade to keep him for a season longer.